COMATOSE
by Emerald Twin Blade
Summary: With Johan gone, Judai gets really depressed. What happens when he starts showing symptoms and signs of something making him really, really sick? Hold on, he's fallen comatose! How'll he get better without Johan around? Absolute Spiritshipping! FOR SURE!
1. 01 : Mistakes

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters, settings, monsters, etc. that appear in this fanfic that are from the show. She owns absolutely NOTHING that appears in this fic, unfortunately.

summary: With Johan back in Europe, Judai's fallen into a depression. He's been skipping classes more than usual, completely avoiding his friends, and even avoiding breakfast, lunch, and dinner! That's definitely a sign that something's more than wrong! What happens when his desire to be with his best friend becomes so strong that he just can't handle anything anymore? Can't stand being away from him...

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

... Yeah, I did it again. XD!

I got out of my Shugo Chara! phase about... 2 days after I updated the fic. I've been stuck on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX for about two months now, so I don't think this obsession is gonna go away as easily as the last one did. X3!

Okay, to those of you who don't know me, I'm Emerald Twin Blade! Although new as I am to writing Yu-Gi-Oh! GX fanfics, I've been writing for a very, very long time. Haha, okay... Anyway, I'm obsessed with Spiritshipping, and while I was watching an AMV, I got the idea for this fic! I absolutely loved the idea, so here I am! Writing it out!

This was originally going to be a One-Shot, but it got to seven pages and I realized "Okay, this is not suitable for a One-Shot from me," so... yeah. It's a chapter fic now. XD!

Lots of hints toward Spiritshipping in this chapter... Johan won't actually appear for a while, though. I know, I know, that's bad, but no worries! It's mostly from Judai's point of view, y'know? And sorry in advance for the many bad things that will befall our favorite Slifer Slacker. Eh heh...

Enjoy? XD

* * *

**Comatose**

_Yu-Gi-Oh! GX_

**: ****Fragment No.01**** : **_**Mistakes**_

The room was dim… The curtains were drawn closed over the windows, closing out all that could disturb the silence of this lonely sanctuary. The room seemed next-to abandoned, save for a few items scattered on the desk and shelves. Some crumpled-up pieces of paper laid ignored and forgotten on the carpet floor by the trash can; several booster pack wrappers were piled up inside of it, leaving no room for anything else to fit inside. Dirty clothing had been carelessly tossed over the floor and the only things that showed any sign that someone was still living there were the neat stack of Duel Monsters cards sitting at the desk's corner and the fact that there was a lump underneath the sheets covering the bed of the lower bunk. This lump was obviously a person, seeing as it steadily rose and fell, breathing easily and peacefully.

Somehow, the curtains shifted slightly, moving in opposite directions for a split second before settling again, motionless. A thin ray of sunlight streamed into the dark room, landing itself directly at the topmost part of that lump. A low groan echoed through the quiet room before the body beneath the covers seemed to turn over, still completely concealed by the sheets.

Another moment later, the curtains just seemed to _fly_ open, forcing the morning's sun to shine over the entire room, illuminating all of the untidiness it held.

"Aaagh!" came a harsh growl from the bed, its source effectively becoming annoyed and shoving off the covers to sit up.

Dull chocolate brown eyes were narrowed in irritation at the first thing they saw: a floating ball of shaggy coffee-colored fur with big, dark eyes and feathery white wings on its back. His own messy brown hair was very much askew, the orange mop atop his head the messiest with several bright strands of hair spiking out in random directions. Apparently, he hadn't been wearing his usual pajamas and had just gone to sleep in his boxers. His skinny right arm lifted itself, causing the strange, winged creature to become cautious and careful.

"Winged," the one-and-only Slifer Red student began, his eyes closed in annoyance and his eyebrow twitching before he quickly grabbed at the Duel Monster spirit, effortlessly snatching up a handful of bushy brown fur and yanking it into his arms in what could be compared to a headlock, "Kuriboh!!"

"Kurii!! Kuri, kuri!!" it cried, struggling frantically to get away from him by flapping its mini-wings to throw off his arms grasp.

Due to having been in this particular situation more than once this week, Yuki Judai had no problem keeping a firm hold on what was _supposed_ to be a completely see-through ghost. The power of the Duel Monster that'd fused with his soul, however, had given him some very extraordinary abilities. This was obviously one of them.

The 18-year-old switched his hand's grip from its back to its head, holding it at eye-level so it could see what it had done. Having removed his left arm from it, he put his hand to its cheek and lightly tugged at it, making it let out an uncomfortable whine.

"And just _why_ did you wake me up? It's not like there's anything to do…" he mumbled, letting Winged Kuriboh go after taking a good, long, deep breath, "Gaah… I haven't really been feeling up to doing anything lately, have I? Sorry…"

The creature shook itself, making its clumps of fur go back into its usual messy-but-tidy form. It then made a worried look at him before floating up close to his face and rubbing against his cheek. At least this motion was enough to make the unordinary teenager grin slightly.

"Kuri, kuri…"

"Haa… I guess you're right. Everybody's probably wondering if I've died or something." He managed to let out a weak laugh before, turning his softened eyes from the Duel Monster spirit to the now-clearly visible window that allowed him a look to the outside.

He hadn't been feeling well for the past several days… It was now Thursday, and he'd started feeling really depressed since Sunday afternoon. The most unusual thing about this was that he hadn't left his room _since_ Sunday night for dinner. He didn't feel like talking so much, didn't have the energy to do a lot of things, and didn't even have much of an _appetite_! And when Yuki Judai doesn't want food, you just _know_ that something is wrong!

The only thing that anybody could really come up with to cause the teen to skip so many classes, and even avoid his friends, was the fact of what had happened last Saturday. It'd been the day that all of the transfer students were sent back home on the big boat that'd brought them all there to Duel Academia. Among the student passengers were O'Brien Austin, Cook Jim, and the most important to Judai of the three: Anderson Johan.

Having lost his absolute best friend, even closer to him than Marufuji Sho, it was almost no surprise that he'd need a few days to adjust to not having the slightly older boy around. At first, it was going alright. The rest of Saturday night had gone fine, with almost no mention of the blue-haired teen. However, it was Sunday morning that things started to sink in for Judai.

Having gone off to the Slifer cafeteria to have some breakfast with Sho and Tyranno Kenzan, they'd been talking about the usual kind of stuff… food, duels, food, things that have been going on around the school, and food. However, when they'd reached the subject of another Tag Duel tournament being held at Duel Academia, the brunette had immediately piped up that he'd ask Johan to be his partner. It'd been Kenzan who burst his friend's bubble by reminding him that Johan was already gone. _That_ had been when it began.

The rest of Sunday, Judai only seemed to be half-listening to everything that people were telling him about, and even during duels, though he continued his famed consecutive wins, he just didn't seem to be enjoying them as much as he had before. Once he'd retired to his dorm for the night, nobody had seen him since, though they'd all tried to go visit him, albeit unsuccessfully.

Now, here we are on a Thursday, and Judai is just now thinking that he should probably go out-and-about again. It's not that he's finally gotten over the fact that Johan is gone, maybe for good… No, no, no; don't get me wrong. He didn't seem to even _realize_ that it was his best friend's absence that was affecting him so much and putting him in a gigantic state of depression.

"Kuri?" the cute Duel Monster spirit squeaked, looking up at the teen with its big, curious eyes.

This earned another weak chuckle before he finally nodded and swung his legs over to the side of the bed, "Naa… I'll be alright. Let's go see everybody else, then, huh?"

With that said, Winged Kuriboh fluttered around excitedly, having convinced its human partner to leave the sorrowful darkness of the lonely Slifer Red dorm. The boy got up from bed, but upon taking a step forward, he just _fell_ to the floor.

_**THUD!**_ He winced, thankfully having pulled his arms in front of his face so as to cushion his head from the fall. The Duel Monster quickly darted to his side, seeming to be asking him about what had just happened. All Judai could do was grin sheepishly as his stomach growled in response.

"I guess our first trip out will be to the cafeteria… but I don't really feel like eating."

The creature sighed, calming down. They had a lot of work to do before Judai could get back to being his old self again, and teaching him the wonders of eating food seemed to be the first step in front of them.

--Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Comatose_--

"Asuka! H-hey, don't leave me behind like this!!" called a slightly high-pitched voice.

The Obelisk Blue student stopped in her tracks, turning on her heel so she could face the hallway she had just walked down from. Her blue arm-socked arms came up a bit so that her hands came to rest on his hips. Leaning her weight on one leg, the left side of her hip stuck out a bit in the common "girlie" stance.

"Hurry up, Sho! You were the one who said you wanted to help out with the duties Manjoume and I are given." The blonde-haired girl reminded, a grin of amusement on her face.

The shorter Obelisk Blue boy scurried slowly up to her, carrying several books and papers stacked upward at least three feet high in his arms. A pout had formed on his face as he stopped in front of her, turning to stand at an angle so that he could turn his head to look straight at her. His small glasses flashed a bit from the reflection of the sun's light through the wall-windows to their side.

"Come on! This is heavy; give me a break! Can't you at least walk a little bit slower?" he asked, blowing at his sea green bangs in an attempt to get them out of his gray eyes. Apparently, his glasses weren't big enough to act as a shield against them.

Tenjoin Asuka sighed, nodding reluctantly before turning back around and beginning to walk again, her blue boot-heels clip-clopping on the tile floor and echoing down the hall. Marufuji Sho did his best to walk forward after her, stretching his neck off to the side in an attempt to see where she was and where he was going.

"So… have you had any word yet?" she asked in a softer tone than she'd been speaking with a few seconds ago.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who she was talking about, but Sho suddenly gained a saddened look to his expression, "No…"

"_What_?!" Asuka near-shouted, stopping abruptly and almost having the shorter boy run into her, "What do you mean _"no?"_ He hasn't been seen for _days_, and even _you_, his best friend, haven't seen him since Sunday night?"

The light-haired boy lowered his gaze to the ground; some friend _he'd_ come out to be, huh? He wasn't even sure if his supposed-_best friend_ was alive right now.

"Well… I've tried to go talk to him, but his door's always locked… and he doesn't open the door, or even answer when I call to him."

The blonde's dumbfounded look changed to one of sympathy as she too averted her eyes downward, "I guess… he's taking Johan's departure really hard."

Hearing Asuka say this was enough to hit a nerve in Sho's heart; the young Marufuji boy bit his lip, beginning to walk again but at a faster pace than he had been earlier when he'd been trying to keep up with the other girl. He didn't want to hear it… didn't want to hear _anything_ that had to do with Judai coming down with such a horrible condition because someone close to him left.

'I_ was Judai's best friend first… Why wasn't he like this when _we_ got separated in that Dark World? If it would've been _me_ who was left behind back then instead of Johan, I'll bet he wouldn't have gone back for me the way he did for him…'_ he thought pessimistically, completely ignoring Asuka and heading off toward the storage room at the end of the corridor.

The girl frowned as she jogged ahead of him to the storage room, opening the heavy metal door with a bit of difficulty, but managing to get it open enough for the smaller student to walk in comfortably. Letting go of the door, she dashed inside as it began to creak its way closed again.

"Manjoume-kun!" she blinked, mildly surprised where she stood beside Sho, who had finally put all the books and papers down on a random titanium table that stood off to the side of the room.

Standing before her, sorting through some folders and papers in a box, was the black-haired, arrogant rich boy who had made a name for himself as "Manjoume-Sanda," Manjoume Jun. His steel gray eyes looked up from the papers upon being addressed, an eyebrow being raised in the girl's direction.

"Can I help you?"

Asuka nodded, taking a few steps forward so that she stood directly on the opposite side of the table from him, "Samejima-kocho asked for me to get you to take that table over there to the Obelisk lunch room. One of the more… _muscular_ students nearly got into a fight yesterday and broke one of the tables in half."

Manjoume's eye twitched, but he closed his eyes and slipped the folder he'd been looking at back into the box before getting up from his chair and walking over to the titanium table. All he did was stare at it for a moment before noticing the stack Sho had put on it earlier. He glared at the smaller boy, earning a frightened whimper and a meek "wh-what?" from him. Again, his eye twitched in irritation before he shouted.

"GET THE DAMN BOOKS OFF!!"

In the middle of his yell, Sho had already grabbed a hold of the stack again, quicker than he had intended, and as he pulled them back off the table and into his arms, he lost his balance and wound up dropping the books and papers to the floor. For a few moments, paper rained down in the air until they landed, but it was when one of them landed on Sho face that he took the paper and stared at it.

"Huh? What's this?"

Asuka approached him, leaning over a bit to get a glance at the page. It was filled with names of the students of the academy and types of shots and checkmarks by their names. She smiled, taking the paper for a better look.

"Oh, this is just from last Friday. Remember? We were all required to get certain shots by Ayukawa-sensei and a few other nurses that'd been called in for the event."

"Oh, yeah! I remember now!" he said with a smile, chuckling quietly, "When it was Judai's turn to get a shot, Johan had to hold onto him so that he wouldn't move… but they'd made a mistake and thought he was Yumi Janai, so they accidentally gave him insulin for type 1 diabetes. They said that nothing bad should happen to him, though, since it _was_ a mistake."

Asuka made a confused look, "Are… you sure? When they do that kind of thing, I don't think they just leave it alone like that…"

"That's what they said… but I'm not an expert with medical stuff."

As they were about to get even more into the subject of the conversation, they heard a loud grunt from the third person in the room. They turned to look, watching as Manjoume tried to pick up the titanium table. All they did was blink, but it was Asuka who suggested that he just use the flatbed in the corner.

The black-haired teen turned and saw the flatbed she'd been talking about, walking over to it and pushing it next to the table. He then walked to the opposite side and shoved it on its side with all of his strength. It landed on the equally-metal flatbed with a loud _**clang**_ that echoed through the room. With it lying on its side, he grumbled a barely audible "thanks" to the girl as he pushed the flatbed forward, his ears swearing to bleed at the sound of the squeaking wheels.

"I'll be back in a while…"

--Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Comatose_--

Finally outside again, all of the students who happened to walk passed the Slifer Red student waved and greeted him warmly with a "welcome back!" or with a "you've been gone so long! Let's duel!" All he did was do his best to seem like nothing was wrong, smiling and laughing with everybody. He would good-naturedly turn down the Duels in favor of going out to find his other friends.

"Hey, Sorano! Have you seen Sho or Asuka?" Judai called to an Obelisk student a few yards away.

"Sho? Asuka? I think they're in the storage room on Obelisk's 2nd floor." Came a reply.

The brunette let a true smile curl on his lips as he nodded his thanks and started running off again. Yanking open the glass door to the Obelisk dorms, he rushed for the stairs, jumping up two at a time.

He just had to make sure his friends weren't worried about him… By not coming out of his room for several days, he wondered what they thought of him by now, or what they even thought was wrong with him in the first place.

Several thoughts flew through his mind as he continued running, automatically rounding a corner and running off toward the storage room that Sorano Taigo had told him to look in. Just as he was about to reach it, the metal door slammed open against the wall and a huge, rectangular table on a flatbed got in his way. His eyes went wide for a moment as a gasp escaped his throat; he couldn't stop himself fast enough because of all the momentum he had behind his run.

With a _loud_ metallic _**BONG!!**_, everything went black. His eyes fell closed and he fell straight down to the tile floor, hitting his already-damaged head against it, too.

--Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Comatose_--

The sound of a human skull against one of the hardest metals in the world echoed down the empty hallways of the Obelisk dorm's second floor, making Manjoume Jun, Tenjoin Asuka, and Marufuji Sho cringe.

However, upon hearing the gasp and the loud grunt the teen had made when his head connected with the table, they immediately knew who had been hurt. Manjoume quickly pushed the table the rest of the way out into the hall and parked it off to the side before joining Asuka and Sho at their friend's side.

"Judai!!" Sho exclaimed, completely stunned to see his friend out in the open and to have finally met up with him in such a horrible situation.

"Manjoume, you baka! That's why you're not supposed to kick open metal doors and try to exit a room with a solid metal table too fast! Look both ways before doing anything like that!" Asuka scolded the black-haired teen, finding a way to keep herself from crying over her friend's newfound condition, "Didn't you learn anything in first grade?!"

"Wh-what?! What're you getting mad at me for? He was the lunatic running down the halls like a freaking _Speed Warrior_! Don't blame me when he shouldn't have been running like that in the first place!" he snapped back, trying to regain composure after what he literally just did to his friend, "B-besides, I'll bet he's fine! He just… just passed out, that's all!"

"M-Manjoume… Asuka… look…" Sho choked out with tears filling his eyes.

The two other Obelisk Blue students looked back to the shortest of the friends and gasped, seeing the huge red bump about two centimeters above Judai's forehead. It apparently became a scrape when he slid off the metal to the ground and it was now bleeding.

The metallic red liquid ran down his face, down the side of his nose and over one of his closed eyes. His normally chocolate brown bangs were stained red from the blood.

"W-we need to get him to infirmary! _Now_!!" Asuka shouted, shoving Manjoume-Sanda forward so he could pick up the injured Slifer from the ground.

"Let's go!!"

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Emeralds Notes & Nonsense:

... Should I run and hide? XD

Please review, though! I'm actually particularly fond of the idea for this fic, so I'd like to see what others think of it...

And no worries, the Spiritshipping-ness will get stronger as the fic goes on! It's really going to be fun! X3! I'm excited right now!!


	2. 02 : Consequences

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters, settings, cards, etc. that appear in this fic that you may have seen in the show. In truth, she owns nothing that appears in this fic... except for the plot. That's all hers.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

M'kay, here's the 2nd chapter.

I was really smiley when I saw the Reviews. X3! Especially when I saw KyoxSakiFan reviewed! OO! One of my favorite authors. XD! Yeah, that made my day.

... AND SPECIAL THANKS TO KellyQ! She reminded me about Yubel. XD! It's true, I kinda forgot, but she fits into this fic better than I'd originally thought. XP

... and excuse the chapter if half of it is centered or something... You guys should know the problems with FanFiction's editor. You put it one way, it doesn't listen; you try it again, it still won't. But when you're fed up, it sometimes goes to the way you had it once you post it.

Okay, go on. X3

* * *

**: Fragment No.02 : _Consequences_**

Blurs of dandelion yellow and royal blue rushed passed their eyes as the trio ran as fast as they possibly could toward the infirmary. Several Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue students stopped their chattering to stare in surprise at the sight of Manjoume Jun carrying a severely bleeding Yuki Judai on his back. A few of the nameless teens began to follow after them, worried about the top Duelist of the academy.

"What happened?"

"Why is he bleeding?!"

"Is he asleep??"

An onslaught of questions was thrown at them with every step they took, and it took all of their self-control to not shout at everyone to just stay quiet and leave them alone. Sure, they had a right to be curious as to what had gone on to put Judai in such a terrible state, but for Heaven's sake! Couldn't they save the questions for later?

Tenjoin Asuka reached the door to the one-room nurse's office and slid it open, taking a step to the side to let Marufuji Sho and Manjoume walk in before her. The moment the black-haired boy had entered the clean-smelling white room with the injured Slifer on his back, Ayukawa Emi stood up from her rolling chair so fast that the seat rolled back into one of the empty beds. Her long string of copper brown bangs bounced from the abrupt movement, her dark gray eyes wide in shock.

"Is that _Judai_?!" she gasped, the first thing she saw being the amount of blood that had slipped down from the scrape and over his face.

By now, all of his chocolate brown bangs were completely soaked, about as red as his Slifer blazer, and small streams of the crimson liquid had become thick rivers that just about made his face look broken. Sho stepped forward, his Obelisk Blue coat tail waving for the second it took to approach her.

"Ayukawa-sensei! You have to help!! Judai was running through the halls and ran into a metal table; what do we do??" he cried, finding himself unable to keep himself still as he began to shift his weight from one foot to the other.

"He just wasn't watching where he was going… Now, where can I put him down?" Manjoume added, looking at the empty beds in the infirmary.

There didn't seem to be any patients there at the moment, so it looked like they would be the only ones there for a while. At least, they would be until all the other students came to find out what happened. The tall Obelisk dorm advisor walked over to the bed that Judai always seemed to be ending up in whenever he got hurt, patting the fresh white sheets.

"Put him down here and let me take a closer look, then." She said before looking over to the blonde girl that had come in with them, "Tenjoin-kun, please bring me a few damp towels; we need to clean off the blood. The bandages should be where they usually are."

"Right!" Asuka turned around and went straight for the towels as Manjoume approached the bed and slowly dropped the injured brunette down onto it.

The back of Judai's head instantly hit the pillow, and the blood slid under his ear and behind his neck until it hit the blank color of the sheets, creating spots of red on the once clean bed. His bangs fell back into the wound around his forehead, his eyes completely closed and his body motionless the entire time.

"Oh my God… How did his run-in with a table cause _this_?" the nurse asked, taking the warm, damp Slifer Red washcloth that Asuka had brought back to her and rubbing around his cheeks to get the slowly drying blood off.

"Well, it's a funny story, actually…" the black-coated Obelisk student began, but it had been Sho who cut him off.

"It all started when Asuka gave Manjoume a request from Samejima-kocho…"

_**

* * *

**_

Poink!

"Nnngh…"

… _**Poink!**_

"Aagh…" he groaned, feeling two drops of freezing, cold water sliding down the center of his cheek, one after the other.

Yuki Judai tried to open his eyes, only to find that he couldn't see anything… at all. This odd discovery instantly woke him up, his brain sending signals to his limbs to pick himself up and figure out where he currently was. What was even stranger was that his arms and legs weren't responding, either. Inside of his fully-conscious mind, he was panicking.

Why couldn't he see? Why couldn't he move? What exactly _happened_ to him? He raked his memory, trying to come up with how this could have happened. And then it hit him.

The metallic sound of his skull colliding with the table earlier rang through him, making his body react with an unpleasant shiver. _Oh, yeah_, that's what happened. After that, he must have passed out… but where was he now? The infirmary? It still didn't explain how he was currently blind.

"**Oh, look at what you've gotten yourself into, **_**now**_**, Judai…"** a feminine voice cooed sympathetically.

His paralysis seemed to slowly be wearing off, but he was now able to form coherent words, "Y-Yubel…"

Two lights appeared near him, floating at an equal distance away from each other no matter where they flew off to. One was bright, golden orange while the other was a deep cerulean blue.

"**Close your eyes… and reopen them. You will see."**

Judai's completely black eyes dropped closed again, trusting the Duel Monster that had fused with his soul. When he reopened them, his vision was slightly blurry, seeing nothing but the two glowing orbs in the dim light that barely illuminated the darkness around him. A few blinks later, he was able to see his dear friend's form clearly.

The Fiend-type Duel Monster smiled at him as if he were a hopeless child as he bent down by his side to help him sit up, **"Getting into trouble again… As always, huh?"**

The brunette grinned sheepishly, picking up his right hand and scratching at the back of his neck for a moment, "Old habits die hard, right?" When he had successfully made the other chuckle slightly, he looked around again before asking, "Where exactly are we?"

"**This is your mind right now, Judai… You hit your head pretty hard, so most of your lights are out right now."** The horribly mutilated character motioned with his eyes at how there were only a few rays of light in the darkness around them, **"Since you've awoken subconsciously, I'm pretty sure you can wake up for real now. Do you want to go see your friends now?"**

Judai smiled brightly, nodding, "Yeah! I'm sure they're really worried about, especially Joha—…" He had to stop himself when he remembered that his best friend was no longer with them, but somewhere off in Europe. His chocolate brown eyes took a sad light into them as he turned his gaze from Yubel to the imaginary floor beneath them. His hands clenched and fisted his white pants as though he were in pain.

Yubel noticed this and made another look of sympathy at him, moving his discolored right hand to cover over one of his fists softly, **"I know you're sad; everyone else can see it, too. You've avoided everyone and everything entirely for too long, Judai. The quickest way to recovering from, not only your head trauma, but from Johan's departure is to keep taking things as they come. Go on with life, because I'm sure that Johan wouldn't have wanted you to end up like this…"**

At his friend's words, the Slifer Red student couldn't help smiling feebly and nodding in agreement, "You're right; I get it. All I can do is my best… not to worry anyone anymore."

The Dark Duel Monster also nodded, satisfied with his understanding enough to stand and pull him up along with him, **"Let's get you out there before that little friend of yours drowns you in his tears."**

With a laugh, the darkness in the room began to brighten brilliantly with multicolored lights, allowing them to exit as everything began to function properly again.

Well… except for a few key components that were for some reason unable to reactivate by the added power of the Duel Monster.

* * *

The mournful sobs of the smallest Obelisk Blue senior echoed through the near-completely white hospital room, effectively annoying a certain black-haired Duelist who was leaning against the threshold of the sliding door just to scare away curious students. The blonde-haired girl was sitting in the rolling chair that Ayukawa-sensei normally sat in, but since the woman had other things to take care of, she had left the three there to watch over the unconscious brunette.

"Waaaah!! Aniki isn't going to wake up, is he? He probably got brain damage from running into that table! Who's idea was it to make a solid _titanium_ table?!" came his muffled cries, his glasses spotted with drops of water where they lay in his lap and his tears soaking the bed sheets where he buried his bare face.

Manjoume's eye twitched at Sho's constant blubbering, mumbling before yelling, "What a complete waste of resources… and would you just _stop_ already?! You've been crying for so long, I wonder if you've already drowned the guy!"

The mint-haired boy immediately sat up at the thought the other boy had sent into his mind, looking to the sheets and seeing that the water of his eyes had run all the way from the side of the bed to completely cover over Judai's left arm. His gray eyes were wide in fear as he let out a scream, running to a different bed and grabbing its clean sheet.

"Oh my God! I didn't even think of that!! What'll I do if this makes him even sicker!?" he exaggerated, yanking off the seemingly-unconscious Slifer's damp bed sheets and throwing the new ones over his entire body, head included.

He was about to reach over and uncover his friend's face, when he saw the white sheets rustle a little underneath. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end at the sight, fear creeping up on him. Had Judai turn into a zombie?

"Aaagh!! What the Hell!" his voice rang as invisible arms began to try to push the blankets off of him.

"AAAAH!! ANIKI'S TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE!!" Sho shouted, running off to hide behind Asuka, who had gotten up from her chair and was slowly approaching the bed.

Her arm reached out as her hand took hold of the blanket, pulling it off gently to reveal a very awake, very _confused_ Yuki Judai. The brunette blinked his chocolate brown eyes innocently up at her before easily sitting up and staring.

"Uhm… Asuka? Why did Sho just shout 'Zombie!'"? He asked, eyeing the little blunette warily, "Has he been watching those scary movies with Manjoume again?"

"He _makes_ me!!" Sho defended himself, pointing accusingly at the black-coated Obelisk student standing by the door.

"Do _not_; you're the one who bothers coming over to my room, anyway..."

Suddenly, the room fell quiet. Everyone was staring at Judai, who was acting as if nothing at all had happened. He was smiling, sitting Indian-style on the bed with that usual obliviously happy-go-lucky look on his face. The only difference about him this time than from any other time was that he wasn't wearing his Slifer jacket, which had been taken off to clean at the blood that had traveled around his neck, and the fact that where were several bandages wrapped around his forehead, making his bangs hang a bit higher before falling into his eyes.

"Judai, are you okay? You hit your head against a metal table! Don't you have a headache, or something?" Asuka questioned, taking a step closer and bending over to get a better look at the boy's eyes.

His eyes looked normal… no dilation or anything, so nothing bad seemed to have happened there. The fact that he wasn't twitching or anything meant that he still had complete control over his body and movements in general, so that was cleared… Maybe something could have happened inside of his head?

She shook her head, backing up again as she concluded that if he wasn't acting any different than he usually did, then he escaped that incident with pretty much no damage at all.

The boy shook his head, "I'm fine! My head doesn't hurt or anything… It might be because of Yubel's power, though. That was how I was able to wake up again!"

The three Obelisk students froze; Yubel? What did _that_ monster have to do with all this? And with Judai, of all people? Didn't he defeat him to bring everybody back from Dark World?

Sho decided to take a step forward to get his attention, grinning nervously as he asked, "Y-Yubel? What do you mean, Aniki? Yubel's gone."

"Oh! I didn't tell you guys, did I?" he said, feeling all earlier anxiety to tell his friends about what had happened disappear since the moment seemed perfect to tell them, "Well, Yubel and I… uhm… How do I put this?"

Manjoume Jun stomped up to where the other boy sat and snatched him by the collar of his black T-shirt, pulling him up into his glaring face, "Are you trying to say that that _sick_ _creature_ is still around?!"

Judai pushed the black-haired boy away, not enjoying being in closer quarters with him, "Hey! Don't call him sick! He's still my friend, and now, he lives inside of me!"

Again, everyone fell silent.

"… Come again?"

The brunette dug under the covers to pull his Slifer jacket up so he could put it back on, "Yubel was my guardian in another life, y'see… and he's been following me through all my past lives up until now. When I defeated him, I used Super Fusion to fuse our souls together… That was how I ended the game."

When nobody said anything for the third time, he began to get a little nervous; maybe this _wasn't_ the time to tell them, after all. The worst that could happen was that they wouldn't believe him, and that wasn't too bad, so he started to relax upon realizing this.

"Let me get this straight…" Manjoume began, taking a step back, "You've got him in_side_ of you, now? What's he trying to do? Kill you?"

"He's my _guardian_, Baka! He's here to _protect_ me, not _destroy_ me!!" Judai snapped, growling because his new/old friend was being criticized.

Sure, he manipulated several people, threw their school into another dimension, possessed his best friend, and tried to destroy the universe, but he was still a good person in the end! The worst of everything he'd tried to do didn't happen, so Judai thought it was alright.

'**Judai, I don't think your friends like me…'** Yubel's voice hummed in his head.

His feminine voice was a bit odd to hear inside of him, because it was somewhere off to a corner of his mind. If he focused really hard on that one spot, he could hear him.

He frowned, replying to him in thought, _'I don't think so, either… but give them some time! At least Asuka and Sho could come around. Don't bet on Manjoume, though.'_

"HEY, YOU!! I'm _talking_ to you, here!!" Manjoume shouted.

Judai jumped a little, realizing that he had zoned out for a bit to talk to Yubel in his head. Another worried look had come to Asuka's face as she lightly pushed the black Obelisk out of the way to put her hand over the injured boy's bandaged forehead.

"I knew you still weren't well… Not even _you_ can recover that fast from something like this." She said, checking to see if he had a fever.

"H-hey! I'm not sick!" Judai exclaimed, scooting backward on the bed so that her hand no longer touched his face; he didn't like being touched at times like this.

"Yes, you are. The moment you stopped arguing with Manjoume-kun, you stared straight ahead and I saw something in your eyes, though, it only lasted half a second." Asuka made a firm look, "You need to lie back down and rest. I'm going to go get Ayukawa-sensei."

Okay, now it was getting annoying. Judai could understand her being worried and all, but he was fine! Did he _look_ sick? Save for the bandages, he looked like nothing happened! When he refused to lie down again, the girl put her hands on his shoulders and tried to force him. This, however, only proved to spook him. He jumped out of her reach and landed standing on the other side of the bed.

His reflexes were still good, so that was another sign he was alright. Turning to run out the doorway, Manjoume seized him by the shoulder and tried to yank him back onto the foot of the bed. Judai, however, merely shrugged off his Slifer jacket, letting the other boy lose his balance and fall onto the bed himself.

Taking a few running steps toward the sliding door, the only person who stood in his way now was Sho. The small blunette looked at him with big eyes filled with worry.

"Aniki…"

"Sho…" He didn't want to hurt his friend… his best friend since he first starting coming to Duel Academia. Just when it looked like he didn't have a choice, the mint-haired boy stepped out of the way, giving him room to leave. A shocked look came to his face.

"Why…?"

"Aniki… If you feel like you're fine, then go. If we find out that you're not feeling good again, then I'm gonna drag you back here my_self_!" The determination in his eyes burned, letting him know that he _meant_ it.

The brunette grinned, nodding, "Wouldn't have it any other way…"

With that, he dashed out of the infirmary.

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Well, there's the second chapter...

I don't know if this was a filler or not, but all I know is that this had to be written because it leads to what happens in the next chapter...

which I believe will be a little bit more fun to write because there's more mention of Johan and some memories! X3! Yup, yup, it'll be fun...

But be aware, I think I'm kinda messing with Judai's health for a reason, here. o.o; Yup, yup, I believe I am. Just be prepared, y'all.

... and Review! XP! It needs to be said in every chapter; it's the chant we feeble authors have to put to gain encouragement to continue. XD! ... and that's kinda hard for me, because no matter what, if I'm excited, I'm gonna go for it. XD

The third chapter won't take long.


	3. 03 : Memories

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters, settings, etc. that may appear in this fic that you find familiar from the show. The only thing she owns is the plot. The idea for the fic. Ta-da!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

Okay, it took a day longer than I thought it would... but it's done! I just had to revise and edit the chapter to find any mistakes before I posted it up here.

Unfortunate to say... almost this entire chapter puts Judai through necessary pain. My random research of comas and what can lead to them led me to writing this story, so this is how it has to be.

There's a little piece of Johan in this one! ... well, kinda. XD! He'll show up by Fragment No.05, at latest.

REMEMBER! Everything that happens here in NECESSARY!

* * *

**: ****Fragment No.03**** : **_**Memories**_

-------[_Fatigue & Weakness_]-------

A low groan echoed down the bottom floor halls of the Obelisk Blue dorm, hopefully not signaling to anyone that he was there. Yuki Judai was currently sitting up against a light gray wall with his legs spread and bent at an angle so that his elbows were propped up on them, letting his arms hang limply. His chocolate brown eyes were slightly downcast as he stared down at the floor.

The moment he had made his way out of the infirmary, half the school's students had found him and tried to ask him a million questions at once. He wound up getting freaked out by it and turning around to high-tail it out of there. After a while, the brunette had run around the second floor hallways so many times that everybody else just seemed to give up, or just lose him, because he was able to sneak down to the lower level easily enough without being seen.

He panted calmly, feeling his head throbbing from all of the running he had just accomplished. It was almost funny how he was so tired after that; normally, he could run for _miles_ without getting _this_ exhausted. Picking up his right hand, he wiped the back of it against his forehead, only to pull it back and realize that it was now slick with sweat. Blinking in confusion, he touched his forehead again, but with the front of his hand.

Oh, yeah! There were bandages wrapped around his head… well, very _damp_ bandages, at least. Judai made a face as he shook his hand in mild disgust away from his body, seeing small droplets swing off from the movement. Sticking out his tongue, he rubbed his hand over the stomach area of his plain black T-shirt, trying to dry it a little bit.

Maybe it was high time he just went off to his room again… Sure, it was coming up on evening, so it would probably be a good idea. Not to mention, if he went there, _nobody_ would be able to get to him, because he installed a lock to his dorm room. Wasn't that just so smart of him to do before Johan left? It had actually been Johan's idea, too…

He frowned, letting his arm go limp and fall motionless to his side, bouncing for a split-second against the cold, silver tile of the floor. Johan… What could he be doing at that moment? Probably having fun sharing stories with the old friends he had left behind at North Academy of all the weird things that happened at Duel Academia. Judai couldn't help smiling weakly at the thought of Johan smiling and laughing.

Shaking his head, he shoved himself up to his feet to get his mind off of the blunette. A few seconds after standing up straight, however, his eyes screwed up a bit and he fell back into the wall. Shutting his eyes tightly in an attempt o bring them back into focus, he began to pant again as he pressed his palms flat against the wall that held him up.

_Wh-what's happening to me…? Why am I getting dizzy… and getting tired so suddenly?_ He thought, opening his eyes when he thought it would be okay to, _Yubel's power should've completely turned on all the bells and whistles in my head… but why am I having problems?_

The brunette had actually been expecting an answer from the spirit living inside of him, but when he focused on the spot inside of him that he usually heard her voice from, all he was able to hear was soft breathing and slight snoring. He suppressed a chuckle; so even Duel Monsters had to get some sleep…

Sleep… His mouth opened wide in a huge yawn, his hand automatically came up to cover his mouth some. Blinking open his eyes again, he took a few steps forward, with one hand on the wall just in case, to see if he would be alright to walk normally. Nothing seemed to happen… no weird feelings, other than the throbbing in his head that he just knew was going to become a full-on headache. Taking his hand away from the wall, he started walking toward the exit, easily walking out unseen because he lacked his Slifer Red jacket.

Nobody on the second floor seemed to recognize him without it, so he was pretty much as visible as a ghost to them. Easily ignoring this fact, he walked leisurely back to the Slifer Red dorm.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

It was finally Friday, a day that meant both good and bad things to the students of Duel Academia. The good thing about it was that there wouldn't be any class for the next two days… but the bad thing about it was that there were _some_ teachers who thought it was appropriate to give students tons of homework to do for their weekend-off.

Manjoume Jun walked through the open doorway to Professor Chronos's lecture room, his pale hands stuffed into the pockets of his long, black coat. His dark grey eyes scanned the near-empty room, immediately spotting the one he had been looking for. His spiky, jet black hair bounced a bit with every step he took down the stairs, until he sidled his way across the empty chairs into one of them beside a certain blonde-haired girl.

Tenjoin Asuka looked at him out the corner of her eye before rolling them away and looking back to the open book sitting in front of her, "What is it? Isn't it a little too early for random jobs?"

The teenaged boy laughed sarcastically for a few seconds before narrowing his eyes slightly at her sternly, "I'm not here with any assignments… I'm here because we need to figure this thing out about Judai."

The girl flipped closed the book and turned to face him, an eyebrow raised, "And since when do _you_ care so much about him? I realize that you see him as a powerful rival and all, but seriously?"

"It's nothing like what you're thinking!!" Manjoume snapped, a blush of embarrassment painting his cheeks bright red as he averted his gaze from the girl, "I… I just kinda feel responsible… I _was_ the one who pushed the metal table out of the storage room, after all."

The look of curiosity on Asuka's face turned into one of mild surprise, "Manjoume-kun…"

"I wonder if Aniki is going to come to class today…" a familiar, high-pitched voice spoke aloud.

The two Obelisk students looked to the row behind them, seeing a sad-looking Marufuji Sho slumping over the table with his bush of mint blue hair nearly hiding his face from view. Considering the fact that Sho had been in that position every morning for class all week, asking the exact same question, you would think that they would just ignore him this time around. However, they both only made slight looks of sympathy.

They were all friends to the accident-prone brunette, but the smallest of the trio seemed to be the closest and most loyal to him. They were all worried, but perhaps he was just a little _too_ worried. Asuka picked up her right arm and placed her hand to Sho's forehead, lightly patting it comfortingly.

"Don't worry about it, Sho… If he doesn't, then we'll know that his head injury from yesterday was what kept him down, _not_ his depression over Johan."

The girl's reassurance was enough to have Sho lift his head up, the small boy showing a shy smile. Apparently, she had seen through him and found that he was actually a little bit jealous of Judai's almost-obsession with Johan. Some times, when he thought really hard about it, Sho even thought that maybe his best friend could be… Naa, that thought was a little too normal to be something Judai would think of, or even understand, for that matter.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Irritability & Apathy_]-------

"Kuri, kuri, kuri~!" a certain little Duel Monster spirit sang, floating all around the room.

Yuki Judai was currently sitting on the side of his bed, glaring at the alarm clock that he had acquired before Johan left as the numbers changed from 7:29 AM to 7:30 AM. Chocolate brown eyes took on a burning, piercing effect as his death glare was turned onto the spirit, making it freeze in mid-float.

"WHY ARE YOU WAKING ME UP SO _EARLY_!?"

The teenager pushed himself off of the bed so hard that he shot toward the spirit, arms reaching out to capture the monster. When the brown ball of fluff glided out of the way, Judai was unable to do the same. His eyes shut tightly as he lowered his head inward, making himself literally do a mid-air flip before landing on his back upon the dirtied floor. Those eyes reopened to see two purple eyes staring back down at him. His eye twitched as he quickly threw his hand up, grabbing Winged Kuriboh by a wing and pulling it down so they could be face-to-face again.

Can you say _replay_?

Suffice it to say, after a good talking to, Winged Kuriboh squeaked an apology and Judai was satisfied enough to get up and change again. He picked up a random black T-shirt from somewhere on the floor, but he could tell it wasn't the same one as from yesterday because he had stuffed that one into the trash bin. He wasn't really big on washing something with blood stains on it…

Moving on, he pulled on a pair of white pants and then looked around the room for his Slifer blazer. For about two minutes he dug into the piles of junk on the floor, but then he remembered how Manjoume had tried to force him back onto the infirmary bed and how he had left the blood-stained blazer behind. Having remembered the stains, he was kind of glad that he left it behind. Turning to look through the dusty old drawers that he hadn't used in ages, he managed to bring out another blazer from it. It looked a little bit worn out, with its flare red color having faded to a shade darker than violet red. Shrugging, he pushed one arm through a sleeve while thinking that no one would notice.

Judai didn't even bother looking in the mirror; his hair always looked the same, so what was the point? He approached the door and slipped his feet into his usual red-and-black shoes before leaving.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Moodiness_]-------

Considering that he hadn't been to class in such a long time, the brunette had started walking off for Professor Chronos's lecture room, ignoring all of the looks and stares he was getting from the students he passed by. Just _what_ were they looking at?

"He's got a red mark on his forehead…" a particularly loud whisper reached his ears.

"… I heard that he ran into something and started bleeding!" came another whisper.

He resisted the urge to touch his forehead to check if he did indeed have a mark there, but it wouldn't be like he could see it, anyway. Putting his hands into his pockets, he lowered his head so that his bangs hung low over his forehead and eyes, hiding both. Even with this done, the whispers were still rampant and getting beyond annoying.

"EX_CUSE_ ME! Do you mind _not_ talking about me behind my back so loudly?" he snapped coldly at a random Obelisk Blue girl who had been the unfortunate one to cut the thin thread that had been his patience, his eyes narrow in a glare that instantly froze the three gossiping girls in front of him.

After a few seconds of making sure they had gotten the message across, he turned back around so that he could head toward his class, but he then noticed the silence and the direct stares he was now receiving. A blush of embarrassment surfaced on his face; wow, he must have just made himself look like a huge jerk…

_But _they _started it by talking about me, anyway… What do I care what they think of me, anyway?_ He thought bitterly, his embarrassment dissolving back into his cold glare as he continued on his way.

It wasn't even that far from where he had stopped to let everybody gawk at him, so once he got there, he just walked right on in. The brunette didn't say _'excuse me'_ or _'sorry'_ as he walked normally through the row to the center of it where an empty seat awaited him by Sho. All the grumbles of the students he had completely ignored died away once he took his seat and put his elbow on the table so that he could cradle his cheek in his hand.

Sho blinked as he stared at the Slifer Red student, the sorrow on his face melting into happiness with every two seconds that went by, "Aniki! You came!"

Judai turned his head slightly, just enough to flash the mint-haired boy a weak smile. When he didn't say anything, Sho's thoughts led him to the bump on his best friend's head. When his gray eyes glanced through the other's thick brown bangs, shock was evident in his expression as he suddenly pushed his chair back and stood up, putting his hand lightly to Judai's forehead and pulling his bangs up to completely show the wound there.

"You took your bandages off! _Why_ did you take your bandages off??" he asked worriedly.

Judai picked up his right hand and swatted the smaller boy's hand away, keeping his eyes closed as his head turned in the other direction, "Because they were uncomfortable… and they got soaked in sweat when I ran away from all the people trying to find out what happened to me yesterday."

"Were you _running_? In your condition!?"

"Marufuji Sho, please take your seat and keep quiet! The class has started!!" Professor Chronos shouted from the bottom of the lecture hall.

The small Obelisk student immediately fell back into his seat and scooted up closer to the table before lowering his head. Several of the other students were chuckling at him, but right now, that didn't matter to him. Judai wasn't taking care of himself, so he thought that it was up to him to make sure he didn't get hurt again.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Daydreaming & Sleep_]-------

Halfway through the class, Judai had begun to act a little bit more like his usual self. He wasn't paying any attention at all to the teacher and just seem to be staring off into space, daydreaming.

In his mind, he was going over what had happened when his best friend left that last Saturday. It had been just like any other day to him… The two had been having fun talking about Duel Monsters and playing around with Winged Kuriboh and Johan's Duel Monster spirit Ruby Carbuncle. Even when it had been time for them to part ways… nothing was different.

The blunette had smiled that special smile of his, standing still for a long time as if he were trying to decide on what to do. Judai himself had noticed this and just held out his hand to him, his own smile still in place. All he had said was that they would meet again, but Johan's reply had brought a serious look to his face. He had replied back by promising that, no matter what, he _would_ find a way back to him. Judai could even remember how his cheeks had warmed up significantly upon hearing his best friend say such a thing. The other had smiled again, as if to say _"cute."_

By now, Judai's daydream had caused his face to paint itself light red. His eyes, which had been staring unblinkingly at the wall above Professor Chronos's head, began to droop lazily until they just closed completely and his elbow bent to the side, causing his head to fall with a dull _**thumff**_ into his sleeve.

Sho turned his head to look at his friend, instantly becoming nervous that his friend had just passed out. When he moved his head closer to the other boy, he heard a quiet snoring and steady breathing come from him. He smiled meekly before going back to paying attention to the lesson.

_Judai probably needs to get some more sleep… especially with everything that's happen to him. He shouldn't have come to class today, but I'd give him an A for effort._ The small Obelisk boy chuckled silently.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Headache & Confusion_]-------

Once the class was over, Sho, Asuka, and Manjoume all followed Judai out of the room, wondering about whether he was really okay or not. The Slifer Red student tried to wave them off, answering their questions with short, quick answers and hoping that they would believe him and leave. Unfortunately, they were pretty persistent, so things weren't going well.

"Aagh…" he groaned, picking up a hand and holding it to his forehead.

"What's wrong? Is your wound hurting you? Is it bleeding again??" Sho questioned constantly, getting closer to him with each one he threw out.

Judai lightly pushed the shorter boy away so as to give him some space, the other hand fisting and lightly pressing against his temple, "It's nothing… I've just got a headache. It's not even in the same spot as that little scrape."

"Judai, maybe you should just go back to your dorm. You've missed class all this week, so what's today going to matter?" Asuka suggested, folding his arms and tilting her head off to the side a bit.

"It's a good idea! So we don't have to be tailing you all day to make sure you don't pass out or something." Manjoume said, not meaning for it to sound offensive, but you know how this guy talks; he could turn a compliment of a girl's dress into a full-on insult without meaning to.

With the throbbing in his head starting up again, all he could manage to do was send a meaningful half-glare toward the unwise black Obelisk student before speaking, "Yeah… I think I'll just go back. Later, Guys."

"Aniki, hold on! I'll walk with you!" Sho offered, coming up to his side and putting his hands over Judai's left forearm.

On instinct, Judai ripped his arm out of the other's weak grasp, spooking the smaller boy into backing up a little bit. His wide gray eyes made the brunette realize what he just did, but even though he knew he should feel sorry, he just… _didn't_.

"S-sorry, Sho… I can handle it on my own, though. I'm just going to my room, y'know!" he tried his very best to sound cheerful again, but his current headache wasn't exactly helping.

Flashing what he hoped was a reassuring smile, he turned and walked off toward the rundown Slifer Red dorm. His friends, left behind, merely stood and watched him go off on his own. Each got a nagging feeling that they should follow, but they went against instinct in order to go back to class.

Several minutes of aimless walking later, Judai found himself standing in front of the boys Obelisk Blue dorm. He blinked in confusion, tilting his head a bit as he took his hand away from his head and scratched the back of it a bit.

"… could've _sworn_ I was heading toward the Slifer dorm…" he mumbled, shrugging and turning around to try again.

Another several minutes later, the teen found himself in the exact same spot as he had been before. He stood in front of the Obelisk Blue dorm, sighing hopelessly.

"What the Hell? It's still a freaking dorm, isn't it?"

Taking lazy steps toward the building, he reached out a hand to push open the glass doors that served as the entrance and exit. When he tried to push, however, nothing happened. Another push, and still nothing happened. He was starting to get confused again; did somebody lock the door from the inside or something? Why wouldn't it open?

He pressed both of his hand up against the glass surface, leaning all of his weight against it in hopes of getting it to fall open. Lucky, or unlucky for him, a random Obelisk Blue student saw him having difficulty and ran on over to the door, pulling it open from the inside.

"Judai-sempai, were you _trying_ to open the door? Or was that some kind of mime exercise?" the boy asked.

Judai flushed, embarrassed at how weak he must have looked, but the other had just given him a way to keep himself from being too embarrassed, "Y-yeah… that was a new trick I learned. Cool, huh?"

"Yeah! Can you teach me?" the other said, excited.

The brunette laughed nervously, shaking his head as he inched inside of the building, "Naa… Maybe some other time, okay? I just remembered that I've got something to do in here. So… later!"

He turned around and ran off down the hallway, following its familiar path unconsciously. His mind was elsewhere as he ran, his legs taking him to the first place they could remember on their own.

By the time Judai had come back to reality, he was already standing in front of _that_ room… _His_ room…

Johan's room.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Staring, Glazed Eyes, & Delirium_]-------

Chocolate brown eyes stared at the door with his mouth hanging open slightly, panting lightly. His right hand reached out toward the doorknob slowly, so slowly that it seemed as though time was beginning to slow itself down gradually. His hand froze before it could touch the cool metal of the knob, a knocking sound echoing in his mind.

_**Knock, knock, knock!**_

Taking a breath, he gulped and clamped his hand over the handle, twisting it to the side and pushing it open.

_**Creeeeeeak!**_ He took a step into the clean, near-empty room. His eyes scanned the furniture and technology. The couch was still there, untouched since a week ago. His left hand unconsciously pushed the door closed behind him, making it creak again before it stopped softly against the threshold, telling him that it didn't close completely. He didn't seem to care, however, or notice.

Judai took two steps forward toward the couch before he heard a smashing sound. An abrupt _**CRASH!**_ He turned in every direction, looking in every way he possibly could from where he stood. What had just…? He stopped moving as the light in his eyes vanished, leaving nothing but his thin chocolate brown irises and slowly growing, black pupils.

His eyesight should have been failing him… but instead, he saw all of the lights on, the items that had been previously removed were still there, and there seemed to be broken glass on the floor. If he had complete control of his body, he might've blinked and bent down to pick it all up, but he merely stood there, staring unblinkingly.

"_Aww… not another one!"_ a familiar voice said.

Judai's heart stopped as the heavenly sound reached his ears. It seemed like… so _long_ since he had heard that voice. Turning his head unhurriedly, his eyes grew wider than they already were at the 'sight' he was met with.

There, standing before him, was the spiky teal blue-haired teen that had departed for a whole different continent only a week ago. The boy's blue Obelisk vest was falling off of his white, long-sleeved shirt. One frilled wrist was bent forward as it leaned against his hip, while the other was behind his head, scratching it some.

The thing that completely stunned the brunette was the other's shocking emerald eyes, those perfect pools of light green that he had never seen on anybody else and never wanted to look away from.

He gulped, wondering if he should believe what he was seeing or not. Even so, it didn't stop him from stuttering, "J-Johan…?"

Anderson Johan smiled at him softly, _"What is it, Judai?"_

His voice! Judai wanted to melt right then and there; it _had_ to be Johan! There was no mistaking that voice, or those eyes, or that hair… He could feel the heat rush to his cheeks to warm them into a faint blush as tears began to collect at the sides of his eyes. He may not have been able to blink, but his tears easily overflowed to form a thin stream on either side of his face as he felt himself begin to cry.

"J-Jo… haan…" he stammered, falling to his knees and pressing his palms against the floor so as to keep himself from completely dropping to the floor. His tears, now with a new direction to fall, were dripping off the center of his cheeks and the tip of his nose to hit the floor, darkening the ground's color slightly where they landed.

The blunette approached him and bent down in front of him and looking at him with a sympathetic look, _"Why are you crying, Ju-chan? It's just a cup; I have more…"_

Judai looked up to Johan, smiling his first true smile in a long while, "I-it's just that… I really… really missed you."

Johan tilted his head to the side in confusion, _"Missed me? I didn't go anywhere!"_

He shook his head, "Mm-mm… You did, but… that doesn't matter anymore, because… you're here now!"

The way his heart was racing right now, and the way he just couldn't keep himself from crying… What was this unusual feeling he was getting? He had felt something like this before… before Johan had left on the boat, but it was slightly fainter. Now, it was so strong that… he just couldn't control it! Couldn't control _himself_… He picked up his hands from the floor to reach out and touch the other, but by doing so, he took away his only stability to staying upright. When he fell forward, just about to land in Johan's waiting, open arms, everything that he had seen… just disappeared.

The lights, the glass, the knickknacks that they'd collected together, and most importantly… Johan himself.

Chocolate brown hues went wide in confusion and then realization the moment everything went back to normal. Surprise was written all over his face, and still his tears fell… but no longer tears of joy. For that instant, time had seemed to stop, but nothing lasts forever.

The second that his body hit the floor, he felt himself go completely numb. He couldn't feel anything, but he knew he was awake… He couldn't see very well either; his vision was blurry, but… he could tell that he was moving. His limbs were twitching, going off in random spasms.

What was _happening_ to him?

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - _Seizure_]-------

Marufuji Sho scurried through the second floor Obelisk Boys dorm, trying to rush to get to his room. When he had gotten to his next class, he had forgotten to bring along a specific book that the teacher had ordered everyone to bring to class that day. He, having been so worried about Judai, had forgotten about it entirely.

_**Kree, kree, kre-kree, kree!**_

The mint-haired boy stopped for a moment; what was that sound?

_**Kre-kree, kree, kree, kre-kre-kree!**_

He turned his head to the door nearest him, noticing that it was the room that once belonged to Anderson Johan. He pouted slightly, jealously bubbling up inside of him. His mind literally burst out yelling _'Best Friend Stealer!!'_

Tossing that thought aside, he listened more carefully and realized that the sound was coming from inside the room. Also, upon closer inspection, the door to the room was open by a crack. Approaching the door, he gently pressed on it to open a little bit wider, _just_ enough for him to look inside. What he saw, however, was the absolute worst thing that he had ever seen.

"Aniki!"

The brown-haired boy was lying on the floor, going through random convulsions. He wasn't blinking, and his pupils were much bigger than they were supposed to be. With gray eyes wide in fear, he didn't know what to do, who to call, or how he was supposed to go about this situation.

He threw open the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, "ANIKI!!!!"

Somehow, after Sho's yell echoed through the room, the hallway, and likely the entire Obelisk Boys dorm, Judai's body became motionless. Even his eyes had fallen closed. The mint-haired boy slowly inched closer, frightened that his best friend might start another seizure if he got too close. When he got close enough, however, he realized that something wasn't right. He didn't look like he was sleeping normally… Something was up.

He gulped, hearing several running footsteps and turning toward the doorway, only to see Ayukawa-sensei, Asuka, Manjoume, and Chronos-sensei standing there. Sho's tearstained eyes stared at them with a pleading look in them.

"Wh… what happened to him?"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX – _Comatose_]-------

* * *

Emerald's Nonsense:

Hahaha!! Please, dont think I'm a sadist for doing this. There's a plot behind all this... _somewhere_.

If you don't see it yet, hopefully you'll see it in the next chapter.

Here's some bad news... I can't post the next chapter for a while... At least not until next Sunday or Monday.

Too many things are going on, but I'll do my best to at least start on it.

See y'all next time! XD


	4. 04 : Trapped

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters, cards, settings, etc. that appear in this fic that you recognize from the show. All she owns is the plot. The general idea for this fic. Ta-da!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

Yay! I finished! LOL! I actually finished writing this chapter at 1:27 AM. O.o; Yes, it was technically a Sunday morning, but I'll go ahead and say that I finished it a day before I said I would. XD! It was so much fun writing this chapter... It came out longer than I intended it to be. O.o; Yup, that's the truth, y'know?

What's funny is that a lot of what happens toward the middle of the fic wasn't intended to be there, but I just wound up writing it. XD! It just kinda _needed_ to be there, though. It made it seem more medical. XD! yeah... I'm a charlatan. XP! ... I think that's the word for it. XDD!

Okay, still no Johan in this chapter... For sure Frag.#05, though. I didn't think he'd show up in this one... but there's a tiny bit of allusion in the very last line. ;P

Oh, yeah, just in case! Here's a quick key...

"This is regular speech"

**"This is Duel Monster speech"**

_This is for thoughts_

**_And this is for onopatopoeia (sound effects)!_**

Okay, and there may be some confusion over this, but when there are Duel Monster spirits around ONLY people who can see them or just around each other, they switch to regular speech.

OKAY, I'M DONE! XD

**

* * *

**

**: ****Fragment No.04**** : **_**Trapped**_

After everyone had run into the scene at Johan's dorm room, it didn't take them very long to pick up the ill brunette and take him directly to the infirmary again. The one thing on all of their minds was _"how did this happen?"_ When they had all entered the Obelisk Boys Dorm, they heard Sho shout for Judai and ran off, only to find the brunette passed out on the floor and a sobbing Marufuji boy inside of Anderson Johan's old dorm.

It wasn't until they had put Yuki Judai onto the bed he had been in the previous day that Tenjoin Asuka turned on him and asked what happened. The urgency in her voice and the worry on everyone's face was evident and Sho was still having a hard time calming himself down enough to answer coherently.

"I… I don't… kn-know! I was… ju-just trying to go back to my dorm when… I heard a s-sound coming from Johan's room." He stuttered, explaining as well as he could without crying harder at the memory, "Wh-when I opened the door…A-Aniki was… was…"

His gray eyes went wide and his pupils grew smaller for a moment as his tears began to stream down his face faster. Asuka took a step toward him with her face softened as she reached out a hand of sympathy to pat him comfortingly. The second her fingers touched Sho's shoulder, he jerked back out of her reach. Shutting his eyes tightly and lowering his head in shame, he shouted in an attempt to keep his voice stable.

"ANIKI WAS HAVING A SEIZURE!!" Having finally gotten the words out, everyone in the room stared at him in disbelief. He caught their expressions and felt his heart clench at the idea of them not believing him, "It's true!! And that's all that I saw! H-he was just lying there twitching a lot… a-and jumping…"

Ayukawa Emi looked away from the small blunette and then to the motionless teenager lying on the bed of clean, white sheets, "Do any of you know what might have caused this? Or when it started? When did he start acting strange?"

Asuka, Sho, and Manjoume Jun all looked at each other before Manjoume approached the school nurse and said, "He started acting weird after Johan left. He completely ignored us for almost a week and _just_ came back out yesterday morning."

"Hmm…" she thought for a moment before looking to Sho, who had managed to calm down significantly, "Can you tell me when he last ate?"

The small Obelisk student tilted his head to the side a bit, willing his red cheeks to go back to normal as he answered, "Well… I went to check the Slifer cafeteria yesterday around the usual time he goes for lunch and dinner, and both times, I didn't see him there. This morning, I took a wild guess and went to check again for breakfast, but he wasn't there either." He shrugged, "I guessed that he was still asleep, but judging on how he fell asleep in class this morning, I'm not so sure anymore."

She nodded, picking up her right hand and rubbing her index finger and thumb over her chin in thought, "Then we can infer that he hasn't eaten for a _while_, which is normal for someone to do when they lose something or some_one_ close to them… and we can rule out him taking any drugs or toxins, because—"

"Well, no…" Asuka piped, "Remember last week when everybody was getting their flu shots and everything?"

Ayukawa-sensei shook her head, "Judai has been getting the usual shots every year he's been here, so it couldn't have done something to him _now_."

Sho scurried up to her, looking up into her face with severe anxiety on his own, "One of those other nurses who came accidentally gave him insulin for type 1 diabetes because they thought he was somebody else!"

The copper-haired woman stared at him in surprise for a few seconds, the clues they had come up with piecing together. Her eyes looked to the unconscious patient as she asked just one more question.

"What signs of him being unwell have you all seen?"

"He's been really tired and weak… He could hardly keep himself up after class." Sho explained.

"He was also being really moody and didn't seem to care about a lot. The bastard… I thought he was just PMSing." Manjoume said, folding his arms.

"Only girls PMS, Manjoume-kun…" Asuka pointed out.

"… what's your point?"

The blonde rolled her eyes before looking back to the nurse and adding in her own two cents, "During class, he was staring off into space and likely daydreaming… but in the middle of that, he just fell asleep. Another thing that happened after class was that he had a headache and seemed a little confused about stuff… but these last two just made me think about his head injury from yesterday."

"Should we have… said something sooner?" Sho asked, taking a few steps back.

"Fatigue, weakness, moodiness, apathy, daydreaming, sleep, headache, confusion… and then the seizure he had earlier. These are the signs and symptoms we have, and then from what we already figured out…" Her gaze at Judai softened from her thoughtful one, her voice dripping with sympathy, "Judai has a type of hypoglycemia."

"Hypogly-what-eeya?" Manjoume asked, raising an eyebrow in question and tilting his head back.

"Hypoglycemia… It's most common cause is insulin for type 1 diabetes, and since he doesn't _need_ it, I think his anti-bodies must have attacked it as a foreign substance…" she replied, sighing in relief, "I don't think it'll be so hard to make him better since he doesn't actually have the disease… So he should be better once I give him something to clear it out."

Everyone sighed in relief, and the teacher in the room who had been completely silent this entire time finally spoke aloud.

"Well, then, I suppose I can excuse his absences from the last week due to this problem he was having… but I expect to see him back in class by Tuesday!"

With that said, Professor Chronos exited the infirmary. The three students, however, didn't move. They just stood there and watched as the nurse walked over to a cabinet and looked for the tube of medicine that contained what would make their friend feel better.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Several hours had passed since Ayukawa-sensei gave Judai the medicine, and after sampling his blood, he seemed as good as new. Completely healthy, as usual. However, the problem was that he still had not woken up. The Obelisk trio looked to the nurse as she walked back to her chair from putting some items away, questions on the tip of their tongues. Asuka sat on a wooden stool in a corner, her hands in her lap as she asked.

"… If he's okay, why won't he wake up?"

The woman made an unsure look, leaning back in her rolling chair and folding her arms in thought, "I don't know… He should be awake by now…"

"Y-you don't think there's another problem inside of him, do you?" Sho piped in fear from his spot sitting at the foot of his best friend's bed.

"Don't get excited, Sho…" Manjoume snapped, his eyes closed as he continued, "She said that nothing was wrong with him anymore. He's either just sleeping it off or messing with us just for the fun of it."

Opening his eyes and pushing off of the wall he'd been leaning back against, the black-haired rich boy approached the side of Judai's bed and picked him up by the collar, glaring at him, "Wake the Hell up, Judai!! You're fine!"

Judai, although being held up by the front of his shirt, still did not wake up. His head hung back, showing that he was still quite asleep.

"MANJOUME-KUN!!" Asuka and Ayukawa-sensei shouted, the blonde actually getting up out of her seat and running behind him to yank him back, away from the brunette.

The Slifer Red student fell backward onto the bed, his black shirt ruffled a bit from the other teen grabbing him. His stomach was slightly exposed, showing just how skinny he currently was. His side of his head fell against the bottom of the pillow, his brown and orange hair spread out over the white pillow cover and over his face. His eyelids were shut lightly, his eyes not showing any movement behind them. His mouth, however, was slightly ajar from the short fall.

"Manjoume!! How could you do something like that!? He's obviously still not well!!" Asuka scolded, holding her arms straight to her sides to stop herself from slapping him.

"He still not awake, even after that! Is Aniki dead??" Sho asked, beginning to cry again as he picked up the faded Slifer Red jacket they had taken off of the boy to give him the shot he needed, hugging it close to him and burying his reddening face into it.

"No, he's not dead… But maybe there was something I overlooked…" the nurse said, walking to a storage closet in the room and pulling out a large machine on wheels.

She pushed the machine to the left side of the bed and took the wires, sticking the suction cup-like ends to different spots on the Slifer's forehead. After this was done, she turned on the machine and saw strange waves that were moving up and down simultaneously. The students stared at this; what was going on now?

"Hmm… His brain waves are all the same…" She looked to Manjoume and made an uncertain look, "Umm… I don't have anything in this room that can help check for this, but… would you consider doing that again?"

Asuka and Sho made incredulous looks at her, "_What_?!"

The black-haired Obelisk pulled his hands together and popped his knuckles, nodding with a bit of an evil chuckle, "I'll do whatever y'want me to…"

Approaching the other side of the bed, he grabbed the collar of Judai's black T-shirt again and shouted right in his face, "WAKE UP, YOU SLIFER SLACKER!!"

The two other students winced at the sound, looking away. Why did Ayukawa-sensei let him do that?

The nurse, however, just stared right at the machine that monitored the unconscious boy's brain waves. The whole time that Manjoume had retried waking the brunette up, nothing had changed on the monitor. The waves were still moving normally.

"… slap him." She said clearly.

"WHAT?!" the other two stood up when they heard this.

"Gladly!" Manjoume pulled back his right palm and was about to swing it forward, when Sho reached out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him, "Hey, she _told_ me to! Let me do it!!"

"Ayukawa-sensei, what are you trying to _do_?!" Asuka questioned, running up to her and demanding an answer.

Ayukawa-sensei looked to the blonde and explained, "We need to see what level he's at on the Glasgow Coma Scale. Since he didn't respond to Manjoume-kun's voice or his roughness, he may be in a strong coma… but if he doesn't respond to painful stimuli, then he's got the lowest score on the scale and is possibly in a deep coma."

Asuka and Sho froze in shock, the surprise making Sho's hands go limp enough to let Manjoume pull his wrist out of his grasp and flat-out punch the unconscious Slifer in the cheek.

As Judai fell back down onto the bed, he made no sound. He didn't twitch or move on his own, and his eyes did not open. All he did was lie on his right side, exposing his rapidly reddening left cheek and one of his closed eyes.

The three Obelisk students were astonished; he still didn't respond, and not even his brain waves told them that he noticed what just happened to him. The nurse frowned, turning away from the monitor and facing them.

"He's stuck in a deep coma… He won't wake up for a long time."

Sho stepped forward from beside the rough, black-haired Obelisk, "E-exactly, _how_ long is 'a long time?'"

"It could be anywhere between a few days to a few years…"

"_Years_?!"

"**Judai…"**

Manjoume Jun blinked out of his surprise upon hearing a voice.

"**Judai… please wake up…"**

"What the Hell? Does anybody else hear tha—" he began, turning around to face his unconscious friend.

He yelped, jumping back into Sho and causing the two of them to fall onto the floor.

"Hey!! What was _that_ for?!" the small blunette squeaked, shoving the taller boy off of him.

"There! Y-Yubel!!" Manjoume stuttered, eyes wide as he pointed to the side of the bed that Ayukawa-sensei was standing on.

Since he was the only one who could see Duel Monster spirits, of course the others couldn't see him. The Fiend-type monster sat at Judai's bedside and was lightly shaking his shoulder, a sad look in his two different colored eyes. He turned to look at Manjoume, who just gasped and backed up a bit more.

"**Do not be afraid… I won't hurt you…"** Yubel said in a mournful voice, crystal clear tears falling from those strange eyes of his.

The other people in the room had gotten slightly frightened at the mention of the one that had transported their entire school to another dimension at one time. The black-haired Obelisk got up to his feet cautiously and told everyone to calm down before speaking with the spirit.

"Why are you here? If you've fused with Judai, shouldn't you be in the same condition as he is?"

"**I'm still me even though we are one… but I still feel the same pain as he does."** Came his reply.

Manjoume was taken aback by this, "Pain? What're you _talking_ about? He's not feeling any pain… The monitor over there would've shown us if he was."

Yubel glared at him, standing up from his spot on the bed, **"Simple human technology does not always work on those who aren't completely human. His mind is so full of pain and suffering right now… that not even **_**I**_** can reach him…"**

"A-are you serious?"

"Manjoume-kun, what is he saying?" Ayukawa-sensei asked, a hard look on her face, "Does he know something that we don't?"

"Is Aniki really in pain?" Sho added, getting worried.

"**You are all close friends to him, right? It's funny how you can't bring him back… and even funnier that you don't know how to."**

"Are you calling us stupid?! You can't even reach him yourself, so you're in the same boat as we are!!" Manjoume snapped.

It was then that Ojama Yellow appeared at his shoulder, squeaking in slight fear, **"I don't think it's such a good idea to get mad at him like that, Manjoume-aniki!"**

"And _you_ shut up! Go do something productive, like find Winged Kuriboh or somethi—" he stopped himself, going quiet for two seconds before shouting, "THAT'S IT! Go find Winged Kuriboh! It's gotta know something!"

"**Great idea! I'll start the search!**" With that said, Ojama Yellow vanished.

"**Winged Kuriboh… Let's see what it can come up with."** Yubel mumbled, disappearing, as well.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Ojama Yellow reappeared inside of Judai's dorm room, looking around, "Hey, Winged Kuriboh! We've got trouble!! Are you here??"

"Kuri, kuri?" the little ball of fluff became visible, flying up to the bright-colored Duel monster.

"Oh, it's just _terrible_!" he began, his voice getting even higher and squeakier than normal, "Judai's fallen into a deep sleep and they say he won't wake up for weeks, even _years_! And then Yubel said that there was something wrong inside of his head, so Manjoume-aniki sent me to get you in case you have any ideas!"

"Kuri! Kuri, kuri!" Winged Kuriboh exclaimed, flying over to the window and disappearing.

"Hey! Wait for me!!"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Manjoume growled, his hands stuffed into his pockets as he stared down at the floor. His eyes darted over to the window for a moment before he turned around to face it and roared.

"Where _are_ they?! How hard can it be to find a hairball with wings?!"

"**I found him, Manjoume-aniki!!"** called Ojama Yellow as he appeared again, Winged Kuriboh beside him.

"Great! Do you have any idea as to how we can bring Judai back?" the black-haired Obelisk asked the weak Duel Monster floating beside his own monster spirit.

"**Kuri… Kuri!"** Winged Kuriboh flew over to Judai's side, poking at his Deck Box until several Neo Spacian spirits emerged from it.

"**Winged Kuriboh… we already know."** Said Aqua Dolphin, looking to the unconscious Slifer teen.

"**We've been talking it over until now; we think Neos should go in and look for him."** Flare Scarab informed, **"He's the most powerful one of us, and he's just as close to Judai as you and Yubel are, so…"**

"**Kuri, kuri!"** the small ball of fur nodded, looking to the big, silver Elemental Hero, **"Kuri!"**

Elemental Hero Neos nodded as he walked closer to Judai, placing a hand over his forehead, **"I'll bring him back… or at least find out how to."**

Manjoume Jun chose that time to mumble a "be careful," but he didn't receive a reply when Neos disappeared into Judai's mind.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Pure, undying darkness… Absolutely no light. It was a semi-wide, vertical tunnel where nothing could stand still and everything just fell. The circular walls seemed to be made of some sort of earth, with stems and roots sticking out of it. Perhaps this could be a comparison… to his limited mind which contained lines and strings that had held together hopes and dreams, his thoughts and feelings. None of them were present… hence the emptiness of this setting.

Chocolate brown eyes that once held a bright shine of innocence were half-open, staring down into the never ending pit that he seemed to be falling through slowly. His body was limp and he didn't seem to be able to move. Though his eyes were open, he could not see.

Suddenly, the thing that kept him from falling quickly and easily down this hole became visible. Yubel was holding onto him, flapping his wings hastily in an attempt to get his spirit-bonded to stop falling. His discolored hands were wrapped tightly around the other's wrists, two colored eyes shut tightly as he tried with all his might to help.

"Judai! Please, wake up!!" he called, still flapping his wings frantically.

It was then that Neos appeared inside of the tunnel, floating from the power of Neo Space. Looking down, he saw Yubel's demonic wings and the bright red jacket Judai always wore, even through the black darkness. Allowing himself to fall downward, he added his flying ability to it so that he could go down faster. Once he got to the same level as the other two, he spoke to the other Duel Monster spirit.

"Yubel! What's going on? Why is Judai's mind like this?"

Yubel grunted, opening his glowing gold eye with a bit of trouble as he continued to work, "Even though his health is back to normal… Judai's still… Aagh!!"

His grip tightened around Judai's wrists, but they began to fall faster again. The Fiend's eyes fell shut as he tried even harder, shouting to the other, "I CAN USE SOME HELP HERE!!"

Neos got the idea and flew around to Judai's left side, taking a hold of his forearms and trying to stop their descent. Even _with_ the strength of Neos, they couldn't completely stop falling, but they were able to slow down by about two miles an hour more than Yubel could alone.

"… what's pulling him down so _quickly_?" he mumbled, pure blue eyes narrowing down at the endless pit.

"It's his feelings! Judai can't wake up until he realizes them!!" Yubel replied, yelling over the sound of wind rushing passed their ears, "It's dark here because he doesn't know what he feels! And he'll fall down continually until he finally sees everything clearly!"

"Are you saying that we can't _help_?!"

"YES, I AM!!" the oddly-colored creature shouted back.

"Well, what does he need to realize??"

"I can't tell you!"

Neos made a surprised look, but it was hard to tell since he didn't have any facial features besides his eyes, "What do you mean you can't tell me?! That's why I came in here! To either help or find out why!"

They began to fall faster, like they had before. The two grunted and screamed as they were pulled down by some power greater than gravity.

"You're not really helping, Neos!! You and everybody else are just going to have to figure it out on your own! If you can't, then you're all _bakas_!!" Yubel yelled as loud as he could, picking up a leg with some difficulty and effectively kicking Neos in the stomach.

The Elemental Hero gasped, letting go of Judai's falling body and floating in mid-air again. He stared down as Yubel and the Slifer teen became tiny specks in his vision. He mumbled a curse before disappearing.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The infirmary was silent as everyone just stared at the unconscious brunette, just waiting for something to happen. The funny thing was that only Manjoume would know if anything happened, though, since he was the only one who could actually see the spirits.

The other Neo Spacians had gone back into their cards, so that left Winged Kuriboh and Ojama Yellow to just sit off to a corner and converse about the present situation. Asuka, however, had left the room to go get the principal and bring him to see what happened.

"**Urrgh… aah…"** grunted a familiar voice.

Manjoume stood up straight from his leaning against the window, his eyes going wide at the strange state the Elemental Hero had returned in, "Neos! What happened?"

Neo Spacians Aqua Dolphin and Flare Scarab reappeared and held onto Neos's weak and scratched-up form.

The silver Duel Monster replied, **"It was harder to get out than I thought it'd be… but Judai is falling into depression, and I mean that **_**literally**_**."**

"**What do you mean?"** the blue Neo Spacian asked, hoping for a little more detail.

"**His mind is a giant black hole… He's just falling and Yubel is doing his best to at least slow him down."** He answered, wincing a bit when he tried to stand up straight on his own, **"He also said that… Judai needs to realize his true feelings… only **_**then**_** will he awaken."**

"What does he need to realize? What is it that he can't see?" Manjoume took a step forward, showing his impatience.

"… **when I asked him, Yubel wouldn't tell me. All he did was kick me out."**

"No! _Now_, how are we supposed to wake him up?"

When Asuka entered the room again, she tilted her head to the side a bit, "Maybe he needs to wake up on his own? He needs to realize something, right? That means that we can't help him, even though I really wish we could…"

The principal entered the room after the young blonde, his arms folding as he looked at the poor Slifer boy's condition, "I heard most of the story from Tenjoin-kun on the way here… Tell me what Neos told you, Manjoume-kun."

Manjoume merely watched as the Neo Spacians disappeared along with Neos before he looked to the elder and explained, "Neos says that Judai will only wake up when he realizes his true feelings. That's all he told me, Samejima-kocho, and I don't understand it! How can _Judai_, of all people, not know how he feels? He's always excited and happy and a complete baka! What's there not to know?!"

Samejima-kocho didn't say anything, he just made a thoughtful look for a moment, and then the light of epiphany came to his eyes. He turned around and began to exit the room again. Ayukawa-sensei looked over to him and called out.

"Where are you going?"

The man stopped for a moment, replying before continuing his speedy walk out of the infirmary, "… I'm going to make a call."

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Yaay! I finished the 4th Fragment! (insert awesome FTW music here)

Can you believe I wrote all of this at once? When I started writing it, I didn't stop until it was _finished_!! 8D

Okay, so... what'd y'all think? What'd y'like? What'd y'not like? And you can't say that you didn't like this chapter because Johan didn't show up in it! He'll pop up in the next chapter _for sure_, if you didn't get the hint I left in Samejima-kocho's last line. XD

Yeah... It's 1:15 AM, so... --WAIT A MINUTE, I uploaded this chapter at 1:27 AM, how come my computer & cell phone clock say that it's 1:15 AM? O.o

DID DAYLIGHTS SAVINGS TIME JUST START/END?!

Please review and not only tell me what you thought of the chapter, but answer this question, because I don't know. X_x

... now I'm going to bed. I'm hearing really weird sounds coming from outside (I'm in the living room on the laptop) and I wanna go to my room where I feel safe.

G'night!


	5. 05 : Revival

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters, settings, monsters, etc. that you appear in this fic that you recognize from the show. She only owns the plot... the main idea for this fic.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

Teehee... I really liked the Reviews I got for .04. X3! Even if I only got 4 Reviews, I was already finished writing this chapter and I _just_ finished checking for spelling and grammar (8:47 PM, Nov.3, 2008).

I really finished writing this chapter yesterday. XD! But I left the editting and revising for today. My boyfriend didn't let me check it so thoroughly while I was at school, so if you find anything, please tell me so I can fix it. Mistakes bother me, but I'm so oblivious that I hardly notice them, even _when_ I'm looking for them. XP

Go on, you crazy kids! XD! -always wanted to say that.-

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**

:

**Fragment No.05**** : **_**Revival**_

Darkness… Wasn't it supposed to be his friend? The darkness of good that would save the world from the light of destruction? It was so hard to see… In fact, eyes that had once been able to see so much had lost their sight.

Chocolate brown irises were almost non-existent in completely black eyes. Long, messy bangs hung over his face, hiding it from view. His head was held low, chin pressed inward against his collarbone. Eyes were open, unseeing, but staring straight down into his lap.

Yuki Judai currently sat up against a soft, moist, earthy wall; his red blazer becoming slightly soiled by the muddy, dirt-like substance. He, however, was apathetic about it. He sat there, motionless with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them.

When had he stopped falling? How long had he been there? So many questions that he wanted to ask… questions that should have been floating around in his head, but it wouldn't process thought. His mind was completely blank.

_**Poink!**_

His ear twitched, his hearing heightening at the sound of water dripping in the distance. It echoed through the empty area; it was no surprise that there was water nearby, especially when the walls were slightly damp.

_**Poink!**_

His blind eyes moved to look off to the right, his head sliding from hanging low to tilting onto his right shoulder. His mouth slowly came open; it had been closed for so long that the inside of his lips had stuck together.

"U-ughh…" he groaned, his eyes half-closing from the movement.

His body was numb and he couldn't feel anything… anything but the cold chill that seemed to be turning his sun-kissed skin a porcelain white color. Could he be dying? He didn't know, and he couldn't even try to consider the subject since it was pretty much impossible to think in this dark, lonely place.

"… _I haven't seen your face here before."_

"Aah?" he mumbled in confusion; what was that voice?

"_Are you a freshman?"_

In comparison, it was easy to tell that it was his own voice… but he wasn't saying anything. He couldn't form coherent words due to lack of thought; however, he _could_ listen and piece things together as quickly as possible before he lost the train of thought and went completely blank again.

"_Well, if you say it like that, I guess I am a freshman."_

His heart began to race at the sound of the other voice; he didn't even have to try to think to know whose voice that was.

"J-Jo… han…" he stammered, his condition not getting any better, though he was able to say the name correctly.

"… _I've got a strange feeling about you."_ Judai could hear his voice echo through the narrow tube that was his empty prison.

"_Same here. It's like this isn't the first time we've met."_

It was then that he realized he was hearing was a memory… A point in his life that he held dear to him.

The memory of when he first met Anderson Johan.

His body was frozen and numb, but he could feel warmth begin to tingle in his cheeks, causing them to redden softly. Hues of pure black tried to blink away the tears that began to form at the sides of his eyes, but alas, it was impossible for his eyelids to close entirely. The best he could manage was to squint.

"… _Did you happen to see a guy named Johan?"_

"_Huh? Johan? … That "Johan" guy… That's me."_

Crystal clear drops of water slipped down the side of his face, leaving a wet trail from the side of his eye and following all the way down his cheek. A single drop fell off of his chin, falling passed his arm and jacket, straight to the puddle of cold water that he hadn't yet noticed he was sitting in.

_**Poink!**_

The turquoise-colored water that surrounded him came up to his ankles, and the moment that his tear splashed lightly into the huge puddle, it seemed to fast-forward through his memories to something a bit more recent.

"_It's been fun, Johan. We'll definitely meet again, right?"_ Judai remembered how he said that to his friend after a long, comfortable silence had settled between the two of them. He had held out his right hand to shake the other's in a pleasant goodbye.

His heart clenched at the memory; how could he just _shake _his_ hand_? Why didn't he give him something more _meaningful_, like a hug or something…?

"_Absolutely. I promise, Judai… I'll find a way to come back—."_

Now that he heard it again, the brunette could hear the sudden pause in the blunette's voice. He was going to say more… but he stopped himself. He might have dwelled on the thought, but he was unable to.

Then he heard something that he hadn't noticed at the time they had been speaking. It was a soft mumble and he had to strain his ears to hear correctly, but even after hearing it, he didn't understand what it meant.

"… _I'll find a way to come back to you…"_

It made his chest ache painfully and made him begin to cry even harder. He couldn't make any sound now… Every time he whimpered and sobbed, no sound reached his ears to tell him that he was making noise. All he could hear was the shallow dripping of water into the slowly rising pool of water he was sitting in.

He sniffled and gasped, trying to get his breathing under control, but the water was ascending faster now. When he opened his mouth to pull in another huge breath, he was greeted by freezing water. His black eyes went wide at the feeling, coughing it out and trying to raise his head above the liquid in order to get the air he so desperately needed.

What was going on? Wasn't the water only around his _feet_ a few minutes ago? A weak strength came to his limbs as he now felt able to move. His arms flapped out, trying to find something to grab onto in the darkness. He was still blind, but even though he had been sitting against a wall of earth, his sense of direction was _shot_.

Judai tried to keep his head above the water, struggling for breath. Suddenly, a force greater than gravity seemed to shove him beneath the surface. He opened his mouth to let out a scream, but he was still mute. With his head having gone under, massive air bubbles swiftly exited from the teen's mouth, depriving him of what little oxygen he had. He again tried to lash through the pool, attempting to get back up to the surface. When his head was about to exit the water, he merely felt the same weight as before keep him under.

His chest began to hurt again, needing oxygen immediately. Though his mouth was clamped shut, control over himself was lost once again as he let it open wide and breath in the water. He coughed, choking on the liquid surrounding him.

He couldn't get any air… Something was trying to drown him. His blind eyes were shut tightly as he tried to cling to consciousness, but he soon passed out, losing himself to the darkness once again.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The lights were all off inside of the infirmary and it was empty of anyone who might have otherwise been in there. It was silent, but if one could strain their hearing, they would be able to hear the slow, shallow breathing of the comatose brunette who laid on one of the few beds in the room. The only light in the room came from the screensaver of the computer the school nurse used, which was of the words "Duel Academia" floating randomly all over the screen in a variety of colors each few seconds.

It had already been about a day since Yuki Judai was pronounced comatose. It was currently Saturday night, 11:55 PM, and still, there was no improvement in his condition.

The lock on the mechanical door came unlocked, sliding open to reveal the large man who was the principal of the school. Walking into the room, he ignored flipping the switch to turn the lights on and motioned with his hand for someone to follow him in. A shorter, much younger boy entered after him, the darkness hiding both of their features. All that one could see of the two was their size and the shape of their heads. Samejima-kocho's bald head turned around to face the shorter one, beginning to speak.

"I know that it must have been hard for you to come back after everything that's gone on… I'm sorry that you were only able to stay in your home country for a week, but as soon as all of this is done, you may leave when _you'd_ like to." He explained, turning back to look down at the poor, sleeping Slifer, "Everything I've told you is true; we've already cured him, so… the only thing keeping Judai from waking up is Judai himself."

The spiky-haired teen that had arrived with him nodded, speaking in a slightly lower voice because of the quiet and the darkness around them, "I see… and you say that he needs to see how he really feels about something? How do _I_ fit into all of this?"

"It's because most of the signs that led him to this illness began after you and everyone else left Duel Academia. Even though the others may not realize it, I think that _you_ are the only person who can bring him out of this."

"I wish I could ask you why you think that way, but… at this point, I guess it's the truth." The other responded, approaching the left side of the bed, "You can go now, Samejima-kocho… I can handle it from here."

The man nodded, exiting the room and locking the door behind him so that it looked like nothing had happened.

The spiky-haired youth sighed, sitting down on the side of the bed and gazing down at the peaceful-looking face of the sleeping brunette. A small smile curled on his lips as he picked up his right hand and put it to the side of Judai's face, sliding a few stray strands of his hair away from his cheek. When he did so, however, he noticed that the side of his face was slightly damp. Pulling his brown hair back, he felt the thin line of tears that the unconscious boy was currently crying out.

The newcomer seemed to make a sympathetic look and smile sadly, "You really are hurting, aren't you, Ju-chan? And it's all my fault for leaving the way I did… I really am sorry…"

Judai's face didn't move; even though he looked like he was sleeping serenely, the tears that stained the side of his head proved that he was anything _but_ serene. The boy stood up from his seat, his arms hanging at his sides.

"Are you ready, Johan?" a voice asked, its source soon materializing behind him.

Out of thin air came the large white horse with big, feathery wings folded at its back and a pure blue horn sticking out of its forehead, its eyes looking directly at the tall teenager who was standing by the bed.

Teal blue spikes that made up his hair swayed to the side a bit as he turned at a 90 degree angle so that he half faced the Duel Monster spirit and half faced the bed. Emerald eyes held a determination that none could ever hope to rival, besides Yuki Judai himself. A soft smile was on his face as he nodded.

"Sapphire Pegasus… Thank you for helping me."

The horse bobbed its head up and down, "I haven't helped you _yet_, so how about we get down to business? From what I've heard from Neos, things aren't too good inside of Judai."

Anderson Johan closed his eyes and nodded again, "Right."

"Rubi, rubi!" echoed the squeaks of Ruby Carbuncle as the little purple creature appeared at the teen's shoulder.

"Of course you can come, too! If anything, you'll help find him with your tail's light since I hear that it's dark in there." Johan tried to sound cheerful, cracking a joke accidentally.

"Shall we, then? You know how to start it off." Sapphire Pegasus reminded, scratching its hoof against the tile floor.

The blunette blushed lightly, but it wasn't visible in the dark of the room, "Are… you sure there's not another way?"

"There is, but any other way would not only hurt you, but Judai, as well. I don't think he needs any extra pain added to what he has to deal with already."

The boy sighed, "Fair enough…"

Johan turned to face the bed, bending over the sleeping brunette and thinking about how this silent, vacant figure was once so loud and full of life. Judai's excited and happy smile came to his mind and gave him the confidence boost that he needed to do what he had to. He smiled gently as he again placed his hand to Judai's cheek, wiping away his tears with his thumb as his face steadily grew closer to the other's.

"I'm sorry, Judai… I hope you can forgive me."

With that, his emerald green eyes fell closed as his lips touched the comatose Slifer's, a bright flash of multicolored light occurring for a few moments. When everything settled again, the teen and the two Duel Monster spirits were gone.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"What… _is_ this place?" Johan asked aloud, hearing his own voice echo down the huge, dark, vertical tunnel.

The blunette was currently seated on Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus's back with Ruby cuddling up into his neck. His right arm was bent upward so that his hand lightly patted at Ruby Carbuncle's soft head.

"This can't seriously be Judai's mind, can it?" he added to his previous question, which he directed at nobody in particular, but Sapphire was the only one who could answer, anyway.

"It is. This is what happens when a person is so conflicted by emotions that they can no longer handle them. The thing that triggered this entire problem was likely the shot that he got by accident before we left."

Johan looked around, seeing that to his left and right were walls made of what seemed to be moist dirt with stems, roots, and branches sticking out of them. The tube-like place was narrow, but it was wide enough for Sapphire Pegasus to have an abundant amount of space to stretch its wings and fly from side to side about three yards apart. The only place he figured they _could_ go was either up or down, and down seemed more likely a direction to find his best friend.

"Alright, then… Let's go down!" he pointed downward before looking to his shoulder, "Ruby, can you stay ahead to lead the way? I don't think it'd be a good idea to go down without knowing what's in front of us."

"Rubi, rubi! Rubi!" the purple creature squeaked, hopping off of his shoulder and making the crystal at the tip of its tail radiate a bright red color to illuminate their way down.

It fell down easily, showing just how deep the tunnel went as Sapphire dive-bombed to catch up with it. Even its blue horn began to glow, but its light didn't show as much as Ruby's did.

With the wind whistling passed their ears, it was almost a wonder that Johan was able to hear something other than its wild howling.

_**Poink!**_

"Huh?" he blinked, hearing the sound again, "What was that?"

Sapphire Pegasus allowed its ears to stand a bit even though they were descending at a hasty pace, hearing the sound, as well, "Water? In a place like this?"

"RUBI!!" screeched the legendary animal whose light had led their way.

"Wah! Ruby!!"

The red glow of Ruby Carbuncle's tail had gone out as a huge splash of water was heard below them. Sapphire's white wings made them slow to a stop _just_ as its hooves felt chilly liquid hit them. It shivered at the feeling.

"For the love of Ra! That's _freezing_!"

"Sapphire, light your horn again! We've got to find Ruby!!" Johan panicked, looking around and seeing nothing in the darkness. He couldn't even see the water!

The large horse shook off the cool feeling it had gotten and made its sapphire horn exhibit a brighter blue light than it had earlier on their way down. Its thick, white neck lowered toward the water, lighting up the liquid to show Ruby floating at its surface, immobile. The Keeper of the Crystal Beasts gasped in surprise, immediately reaching out his hands and sticking them into the water.

"Ahhh!!!" he screamed at how absolutely cold it was, but he kept his hands there until he picked up the poor little Crystal Beast and held it securely in his long-sleeved arms.

The thin material of his white, long-sleeved shirt was easily dampened and the chill of the water that clung to Ruby's fur soaked through to his skin, making him shiver almost as much as the seemingly hyperventilating Crystal Beast in his lap was.

"R-rub-bi…" it stuttered, curling up into a ball and cuddling into his warm chest.

Johan made a worried look at his spirit partner before he heard Sapphire Pegasus yell, "There! Johan, look there!!"

The blunette bent over the side carefully so he wouldn't fall into the water, scanning over its clear surface with hues of emerald. What he saw past the skin of the water stunned him beyond belief, making those eyes of his go wide as he shouted.

"Judai!!"

There, floating underneath the water in the center of the pool, was his very best friend, the Slifer student who he had gotten to know for God-knows-how-long… and he was unconscious.

Shifting Ruby in his arms so that he held her with his left one, he tried to reach out his right one into the water, but Sapphire Pegasus floated upward a bit more to put the pool out of his reach.

"What are you _doing_?! You _know_ how cold that is!" it reminded him sternly, "Do you want to freeze to death? I'm sorry to say, but I think Judai's already—"

"NO!" Johan yelled at the spirit who was currently keeping him afloat, "I won't believe that! Not ever! Judai is alright… I know it!"

The blunette pulled off his Obelisk Blue vest and wrapped Ruby Carbuncle up in it, placing it on Sapphire Pegasus's back before leaning over again and calling out to the sleeping Slifer.

"Judai! Judai!! Can you hear me?? Judai, wake up! You have to!!"

As he was about to shout out again, he lost balance and fell off of the Crystal Beast's back, landing head first into the freezing water. Sapphire shouted, almost about to reach its head in and grab him by the collar of his shirt, but stopped itself for fear of being put in the same state as Ruby, who was still shuddering on its back.

"Johan, be careful!!"

The moment Johan hit the water, he felt an odd power force him under, but he didn't scream. He kept his air inside of him, although his chest was throbbing from the fall. The water was making his body go numb, but he still had control over his actions. Slowly opening his eyes and willing for them to get used to the burning freeze of the water, he saw Judai several yards down in the water.

Making up his mind, he began swimming downward, gracefully waving his arms out in front of him and kicking his feet behind him with something less than poise. He also hoped to whatever God might be watching that he would be able to get to the other boy before it was too late… for the _both_ of them!

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"_Judai!!"_

A voice… a familiar one, but… whose was it? Yuki Judai couldn't remember anything… and his eyes wouldn't open. All he felt was… well, _nothing_. He was completely numb, from head-to-toe. He didn't know if he was dead… or alive, as he floated there in the cool darkness of the water.

"_Judai! Judai!! Can you hear me??"_

His heart… The muscle that he might have thought stopped beating by now began to function properly again, slowly until blood began to pump faster and faster, but he still felt nothing. His pure black eyes came open halfway, trying to see.

"_Judai, wake up! You have to!!"_

The spark of that voice suddenly burst into flame inside of his heart and mind; that voice finally connecting to the picture in his head that he had held so dear to him for over a week now. Chocolate brown eyes snapped wide open, his pupils returning to normal as he stared above him in time to see the blurry outline of his best friend fall into the water, causing several air bubbles to fly around him and splash water up on the surface. He opened his mouth, shouting out in the water.

"JOHAN!!!"

Air bubbles rose from his mouth, but it was the last of the air his body was able to produce for him, causing him to choke from its loss. Flapping his arms out in front of him, he tried to swim upward to meet with his best friend and see if he was alright, but all he did was swim in place. He wasn't moving.

Although his vision wasn't so clear in the water to begin with, it began to blur even more as he slowly lost control. However, he was able to make out a teal blue shape that was quickly coming closer. Trying with all of his willpower, he pushed away the hand that unconsciousness had been trying to grasp him in and forced his eyes to see clearly.

Johan was coming for him… He was swimming through these freezing waters to come help him. A determined, unyielding look was on his face as he came nearer and nearer, his mouth clamped shut so as to not let any air escape him.

Judai smiled weakly as the blunette finally came within reach, seeing a relieved smile come to the face of his best friend. As the other reached out his arms and held his hands out to him, the brunette stretched his own arms forward and threaded his fingers together with Johan's.

A bright flash of blue and red occurred, completely concealing everything from view for a few moments, but then when the light cleared, everything was back to normal.

The setting was no longer a dark, circular, vertical tunnel… but a vast, colorful space comparable to Neo Space. Johan was sitting on Sapphire Pegasus's back again with Ruby Carbuncle sitting on his shoulder as if nothing had happened to her, and Judai was sitting behind him with his arms securely around his waist to make sure he didn't fall.

"Judai, you're alright!" Johan exclaimed, swinging his right arm behind him and putting it around his best friend's shoulder. He pulled him into a half hug, squeezing his shoulder lightly.

"Rubi, rubi!" Ruby squeaked, floating off of Johan's shoulder and over to Judai's, rubbing against his cheek affectionately.

Yuki Judai laughed cheerfully as his once-ivory white skin changed back to its tan color almost instantly. Warmth spread throughout his body like wildfire, and it all seemed to be coming from Johan's touch at his shoulder. The brunette smiled happily, feeling as though everything was back to the way it was supposed to be. He was back among friends... the Duel Spirits _and_ Johan.

Johan looked down at him and smiled apologetically at him, causing a look of confusion to come to Judai's face, "I'm so sorry, Judai… It was because I left that this happened, wasn't it?"

The Slifer student tilted his head off to the side a bit, grinning sheepishly, "Well… I guess so… Things just weren't the same without you around and I just… really missed you, y'know?"

The blunette swung his other leg over so that both his legs hung off of Sapphire's right side, and he then put his other arm around Judai's waist, pulling him into his chest for a warm embrace. His emerald eyes fell closed as he just held the younger boy in his arms.

Judai, however, was completely surprised by this movement, the blood rushing to his cheeks and giving him a bright red blush. He looked toward the side of Johan's head, wondering what could have brought on this position.

"Johan…?"

Johan's arms tightened around the other's body as he spoke, "I promise I won't leave you again, Judai… The truth is that… I wasn't in much better a condition back at North Academy, either."

Judai's eyes went wide upon hearing this, but didn't say anything, thinking that the other had more to say.

"They told me that I was acting really off… that I was depressed. I didn't want to believe it because I knew I should've been alright since I was finally back home." He grinned grimly, "I was wrong, though… Everywhere I turned, I was hoping to see you there. I couldn't _stand_ being away from you, even if it was only for a week."

Judai smiled gently, picking up his own arms and holding them around behind Johan so that his hands were placed over his back. His finger clenched inward slightly, feeling the fabric of Johan's Obelisk Blue vest.

"I was never planning to stay at North… I got some papers signed so that I could come back to Duel Academia for the rest of the year, and so I could come back… to be with _you_."

The brunette pulled back from the older teen, looking at him with a confused look but a curious smile. Johan put his right hand to Judai's cheek and gave him a genuine smile.

"Judai… I—"

"Johan! Something's expelling us from—AAGH!" Sapphire Pegasus grunted, as its blue horn began to shine brilliantly, making itself, Johan, and Ruby begin to fade away.

Ruby Carbuncle's tail began to glow increasingly bright, as well, making it screech uncomfortably. Johan gasped, his surprise evident on his face as he slowly became transparent.

Judai's hands instantly tightened their grip on his best friend's clothing, hoping that somehow it could help make him stay. His fingers went right through him, however, making him seem like a ghost.

"Johan… Johan!!" he cried, moving upward so that he could try to hug him around his neck.

"Judai…!" Johan's voice called in an echo before he and the Crystal Beasts were completely gone.

Judai stopped in midair, floating where he was in his own personal Neo Space. Looking left and right, he spun around in a full circle, expecting to find them magically reappearing in another area. When he didn't see anyone, he bit his lip and shut his eyes.

_Not again…_ he thought before shouting out, "JOHAN!!!!"

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Wheee!! I told you guys that Johan would appear in this chapter! LOL!

I'm actually happy with how this chapter came out. I wrote it exactly the way I saw it in my head. XD!

... the Hopeless Romantic inside of me finally broke free and unleashed its powers through Johan. XD! Good or bad idea? Tell me what y'all thought, y'know y'know? X3!

... May have to wait a bit longer for .06... I'm still debating on whether or not it'll be the final chapter. O.o! It's kinda hard to decide, especially since I want to go on to a fic that I _know_ will be longer, but know for sure I'll stick with due to complete & utter obsession with Spiritshipping. XD

LOL! Since this fic is only rated-T, I'm kinda sad because I've always wanted to write a lemon. D:! But one'll surely come out in the other fic. XD! The title's a work in progress, but right now it's being called **"Severed Connection."** Go read the summary I put in my profile if you're interested! LOL!

Have any questions? Comments? Random love confessions? Or even just opinions or facts? Please feel free to share with me through either a Review or a PM! XD


	6. 06 : Welcome Home

disclaimer: C'mon, you guys! You know the drill! **Emerald Twin Blade** doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or anything from the show that pops up in this fic. The only thing she owns in the idea that created this fic in the first place. XD!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

AHAHAH!! Okay, this chapter came out a little shorter than intended. O.o XD!

Well, it also came out longer than I thought it would, too... I mean, page-wise. I was hoping to put a little bit more ideas into this chapter, but then I thought "Hey, it's already 7 pages and I haven't gotten to the part I wanted to put here... I guess, to make it longer, I'll just stop here and put the other part in the next chapter!" XDDD!

Okay, as opposed to what some people might've thought happened to Judai and Johan in the last chapter... No, they didn't get separated again. They're both completely fine, well... for the most part. Things will go back to normal... kinda. LOL!

I'll let you guys read now. XD!

* * *

**: ****Fragment No.06**** : **_**Welcome Home**_

"Waaah!!" cried Anderson Johan as he somehow reappeared in the infirmary of Duel Academia, flying backwards from the bed and falling back onto an empty one.

The momentum from the fall made him flip backwards and land, sitting on his knees, on the now-ruffled sheets of the bed. With one hand pressed down on the soft blankets beneath him and the other held lightly to his temple, his vision slowly went back to normal from the dizziness he got as he flipped a moment ago. Shaking his head for a second, he opened his eyes to look around, recognizing the quiet setting. Emerald hues darted to the wall clock, noting that it was now 6:30 AM.

Had he really been inside of Judai for so long? Time must have gone by faster when a soul was not in its proper body… The blunette froze as he remembered why he was even there in the first place.

"Judai!" He stumbled out of the bed, his legs getting tangled in the sheets and making him trip onto the floor, "Ack!!"

His hands grabbed at the sheets and shoved them to a side, pulling his feet out from them and getting up to his knees. Johan walked on his knees over to the side of Yuki Judai's bed, looking over to the sleeping brunette's face.

He was no longer crying and his shallow breathing had become steady and deep, like every healthy person did when sleeping. A smile spread across his face when he saw his friend turn onto his left side and hug the sheets to himself, mumbling something about a fried shrimp eating contest. Chuckling quietly, he pulled himself up to his feet and leaned over Judai's body to look straight down to the side of his face.

There were _so_ many things he could do right now to wake him up, but just as he had decided on how he would do it, the sound of the lock on the sliding door _**beep**_ing unlocked stopped him.

_Crap!_ The blunette cursed mentally, scrambling around to the other side of the bed so he could sit in the chair by his bedside. He instantly took one of Judai's hands, holding onto it gently so he wouldn't awaken him. Johan leaned back against the wooden chair and let his head fall limply to the side. Emerald eyes fell closed as he pretended to be asleep.

The door slid open to reveal the copper-haired nurse yawning groggily in the hallway while slipping her key card back into her pocket. Rubbing at her eye a bit, she took a couple of steps into the room before freezing in place with a low gasp. What was Anderson Johan doing here? Hadn't he departed back to North Academy last weekend? Blinking a few times, she concluded that she was _not_ dreaming.

"Johan-kun…" she whispered, approaching the seemingly sleeping blue-haired boy and shaking his left shoulder lightly in an attempt to wake him.

Johan's eyes tightened shut for a few seconds before he opened them sleepily, acting very convincing. A small yawn escaped him before he looked up at the older woman.

"Ayukawa-sensei… good morning." He said good-naturedly, smiling tiredly at her.

"Good morning, indeed! When did you get back to Duel Academia?" she asked him with an incredulous look on her face.

The teenager shrugged and chuckled quietly, "Last night… Samejima-kocho let me in here, but I guess I fell asleep."

The Obelisk Blue dorm advisor put her hands on her hips as she managed a small smile for the Crystal Beast Duelist, "You've heard, right…? He hasn't woken up since he had that seizure in your old room."

_In _my_ old room?_ Johan was taken aback when he heard this, "What're you talking about? I knew he had a seizure, but…"

Ayukawa Emi put her hand over her mouth; maybe she wasn't supposed to tell him that? If the principal didn't tell the North Academy student, then maybe she just slipped up, "Umm… well, you see… Judai was found in the dorm room you'd been given while staying here with us and he apparently had a seizure. We don't know the cause, but delirium or epilepsy often leads to them, so…"

She didn't need to finish speaking for Johan to put two and two together. Judai must have gone to Johan's room and thought that he was back. As for what could have caused the seizure, he guessed that the poor brunette found out that Johan _wasn't_ really there. The blunette frowned, feeling even worse about this whole experience. He turned his eyes to look to the sleeping boy and saw the lazy smile plastered over his lips; how could someone so innocent and happy go through something like that and _still_ come out smiling?

"Johan-kun, are you feeling alright? You don't look well…" the nurse pointed out, picking up her hand to check his temperature.

Johan watched as the brown-haired teen shifted beneath the sheets and turned to lie on his back again. A tiny grin curled on his face, feeling that the other, even unconscious, was much too cute to stay serious around for long. He hadn't even realized that the nurse stopped reaching for him in favor of gawking at the boy in bed.

"D-did he just move?!" Ayukawa-sensei asked, excitement evident on her features, "He's moving!! He's fine! I have to go tell the others!"

With that declaration, the copper-haired teacher ran out of the infirmary with her clipboard under her arm. That left the two boys alone in the room again.

"Judai…" Johan cooed as he leaned over the bed to look down on the other's angelic face.

The Anderson boy had always cared for Yuki Judai… even when they first met. The moment they shook hands, he just had a feeling that this excitable Slifer student would be someone very important to him in the future. Imagine his surprise when he figured out that he had a _crush_ on his best friend, always trying to decide on whether or not he should tell him how he really felt.

Now, things were different from before… _much_ different. Johan's crush on Judai had grown to the point that it just didn't seem possible that the feelings would go away. So many thoughts ran through his mind, trying to come up with possible outcomes with the different ways he could confess.

Eyelids fell to close over half of his eyes, a light red blush painting his cheeks as his face was directly above the other's. Their noses were barely an inch apart and he could feel gravity pressing down on his elbows, trying to make him give up their support and fall right on top of his best friend. The thought was actually starting to look attractive, but he forced himself to ignore it.

"Nngh…" came a sleepy groan.

The blunette froze; it was already too late to move, not that he wanted to, though. Emerald hues widened as clear chocolate ones slowly blinked open, green staring into brown. Johan's blush darkened, but the look on the brunette's face showed that he was plainly confused. One brown eyebrow was raised while the other pressed downward, but then a bright smile of slow epiphany formed on his face.

"JOHAN!" he shouted with glee, loud enough to make the older boy above him flinch back enough for him to launch himself upward and wrap his arms around his neck in an enthusiastic hug, "You're back! You're _really_ back!!"

"Waah!! Judai!" Johan laughed as he was pushed backward onto his back toward the foot of the bed by the weight of the other, "I'm here! You don't have to hold onto me so tight!"

Judai chuckled, letting go of his best friend and sitting up straight to let the older boy do the same, "I'm sorry, I just really missed you! I know it's only been a few days, but…"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on there! It's been a _week_ since I left, but I came back last night to help you." The blunette corrected, tilting his head to the left some and raising an eyebrow.

"… huh? But today's Friday, isn't it?" the innocent youth asked, blinking.

Johan reached out his right hand and put it on Judai's left shoulder, wincing a bit. Judai noticed the flinch and picked up his hand to take the other's wrist. Pulling it into view, he gasped at what he saw. Johan's hands were completely liquid paper white, the condition running all the way up to his forearms.

"J-Johan, what happened to you?"

Anderson Johan delicately withdrew his wrist from the brunette, looking over the damage down to his limbs. The noticeable line that separated his normal colored skin from the white parts was gradually falling lower, beginning to go back to its usual color.

It was then that he remembered the freezing water that he had to overcome inside of Judai's mind. The temperature hitting his warm body took away all of his heat and chilled him to the bone. The rest of his body must have looked just as bad as his arms earlier… _that_ explained why Ayukawa-sensei asked if he was okay.

He made a puzzled look as he looked to his friend, "You… don't remember?"

"What do you mean I 'don't remember?' I saw you last Saturday!"

Johan pulled his sleeves down further to hide all but his hands, the frills half-hiding his palms, "Judai… what's the last thing you remember?"

He folded his arms over his chest, leaning his head from side to side with his eyes closed as he tried to recall, "I… remember leaving Sho and the others to go back to my dorm room because I had a headache… but I kept ending up in front of the Obelisk dorm."

"… and then?" the blunette urged him to continue; whatever happened in the Obelisk dorm, it obviously led to Judai's coma.

"I went to… _your_ old dorm…" the brunette admitted, his cheeks reddening slightly, "and when I went in… I _swear_ that… I saw you there."

Johan bit his lip; so he'd been right. Judai _did_ think that he was there, and when reality hit him, he had that seizure and fell comatose.

"… a-and I can't remember passed that point." His cheeks were even redder as he turned his face away from the other, signifying that he did remember a little more than he let on, but Johan wasn't going to ask him. He didn't want to make him any more uncomfortable.

"Judai, you… you were in a coma." The older teen informed, concealing his hands in his lap, "You've been asleep since Friday afternoon and… it's Sunday morning now."

"What?" Judai's surprise was enough to make Johan begin to regret telling him.

The blunette mentally shook his head, thinking to himself, _Well, he has a right to know what happened to him… and how he goes about it is completely up to him._

"While you were asleep," he went on explaining, hoping to make things a little clearer for his best friend, "Ayukawa-sensei pieced together all of your symptoms to say that you got Hypoglycemia, which is a really fancy way of saying that that shot you got by mistake last week? _That's_ what got you sick, and you getting depressed over me leaving was likely what made it start hurting you inside."

Judai put his hand over his chest, "But… I feel fine. I don't feel sick at all anymore!"

Johan nodded, a weak smile coming to him, "When Ayukawa-sensei figured out what was wrong with you, she cured you while you were asleep, but… you still didn't wake up. At least…" a light red blush surfaced over his cheeks as he continued, "at least, not until I came back to see if you were okay."

"That's so cool! You came back right when I finally woke up, then, right? What a coincidence!" the brunette laughed, pulling both of his hands up to rest behind his head.

The older boy nodded; his smile still a meek one. Truth be told, he was just a little bit sad that Judai didn't remember what happened inside of his mind. It meant that the younger boy didn't remember how Johan saved him… or how Johan had literally spilt all of his feelings out to him and came _very_ close to confessing how he felt about him.

According to how things went in there, however, Johan could possibly try to reenact what happened there! Well, of course, he wouldn't make Judai drown somewhere purposely just so he could save him, but he would have to tell the other just how his departure had affected his own health and mind.

"Judai…" he began, seeing Judai's chocolate brown eyes open to look to his emerald ones, "I feel like… I should tell you that—"

"ANIKI!!" screamed a familiarly high-pitched voice from the mechanical sliding door as it came open and a short boy in an Obelisk Blue coat ran in.

With tears in his steel gray eyes, Marufuji Sho scurried to Judai's left side and threw his arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder, "I-I thought you… w-were gonna die!"

Judai snickered at how he thought the small boy was overreacting, but went on to reassure him that he was fine with some cheerful teasing, "Oh, c'mon, Sho! Give me some more credit; I wouldn't let any sickness bring me down!"

Sho picked up his head from the other and sniffled, trying to get himself to calm down. He had seriously thought that the brunette wouldn't come out of that coma and would eventually die. Maybe he was right, though; Sho _didn't_ give him enough credit, even though Judai had been the one to save the school and the _world_ a few times so far.

"I-I guess… you're right. I don't know what made me think for the worst."

Johan smiled empathetically, "It's alright now. Everybody's just really glad that you're finally awake again."

As Tenjoin Asuka and Manjoume Jun entered the room with Ayukawa Emi following not far behind them, they were all relieved upon seeing the Slifer student sitting up in bed.

It was then, however, that Sho noticed Anderson Johan sitting across from his best friend on the bed. His eyes went wide at the sight as his chest tightened in jealousy.

"J-Johan-kun… You're… here." He trailed off without any expression on his face or in his voice, staring at the teal blue-haired teen. On the inside, he was glaring at the other blunette, _When in the world did _he_ get back?!_

Johan didn't catch how his voice held no emotion, "Sure am! I came as soon as I heard that something was up with Judai. When I got here, it didn't take long for him to wake up, though, so how lucky was that?"

"Yeah… lucky…"

Judai blinked, noticing how his long time friend didn't look too happy or sad anymore. As things began to get quiet, Asuka chose that moment to come up to Judai's right side and give him a hug, as well.

"Judai! You're awake!" she exclaimed, a wide smile on her face.

"It's about time! Things were getting really boring around here; you better not pull another stunt like you did last week again." The black-haired Obelisk student said, folding his arms and turning at a 90 degree angle away from the others in the bed from where he stood by the door.

Judai laughed happily as Sho and Asuka started to pull at him, making him sway from side to side as they had a mini-tug-of-war over him, "Yeah, yeah, I don't plan on it!"

Ayukawa-sensei stepped up to the foot of the bed and warned them feebly, "D-don't do that! You might hurt him!"

The two Obelisk students didn't hear her and continued pulling Judai towards themselves until his neck started hurting. The look on his face told the nurse and the others in front of him that he was beginning to have difficulty breathing. It was Johan who leaned forward and took them both by the wrists and pulled them off of the brunette gently. The blonde and mint-haired teens looked at him confusedly, only to be met with a firm look in eyes of bright emerald.

"You guys are hurting him. He's been asleep for a long time and is a lot weaker than you or me right now, so fighting over who gets to hug him is probably not the best idea right now." He informed, but there was a hint of protectiveness in his voice.

Asuka and Sho pulled their hands away from Johan and Judai, folding their arms and looking away with pouts on their lips. At that moment, both of their thoughts were the same: _You're only saying that so you can hug him yourself!_

Judai coughed quietly, putting his right hand to his neck and wincing with one eye closed. His two pouting friends made worried looks at him, feeling guilty for not noticing that they were harming him unintentionally. The brunette, however, looked up at Johan, who placed both of his hands over his shoulders and was looking directly into his face with concern.

"Judai… are you okay?"

A light blush arose over his cheeks, but he nodded, "Y-yeah… I'm fine."

The copper-haired nurse clapped her hands together, getting everyone's attention in an instant, "Alright, I need everyone to leave now. Judai's been in a coma and just woke up, so there are a few things that I need to check for him to make sure he really is alright now."

"Awww!! But Ayukawa-sensei!" Sho protested, standing up straight and looking at the Obelisk nurse with a hurt look.

"I'm sorry, but you all should get out now."

Sho and Asuka sighed in defeat, getting up and walking slowly toward the sliding door. They could hear the bed sheets rustle as Johan also got up, but when his boots hit the floor, it got quiet. Manjoume blinked, having been the only one who didn't turn his back on them.

Johan looked back to his best friend in confusion, "Judai…?"

Judai smiled weakly, his left hand grasping the blunette's sleeve to stop him from going on, "Would… it be okay if you stayed?"

The Anderson boy blinked, still a little bit shocked from the request, but he smiled gently in understanding. If it was true that he'd been the reason for Judai's illness to surface, then it probably wasn't a good idea for him to leave now. Nodding, he approached his side and sat down in the chair again, his hands taking a hold of the hand that had held onto his sleeve a moment ago.

"If that's what you want, then…"

The three Obelisk students stared at the scene, blushing in embarrassment. As Asuka and Manjoume began to exit, Sho just pouted, not happy that Johan got to stay with Judai, but he did turn around and leave. Ayukawa approached Judai's right side and instructed him to lie back down. The other obeyed, but his hand never left Johan's grasp.

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Okay, see? Short. LoL!

At least this fic'll come out to be an 8-Chapter Fic now! In actuality, the next chapter will be the Final Chapter and the 8th one will be a Bonus. XD! At least, that's what it looks like from my POV. o.o;

Anyway! I'm gonna get to work on _Fragment No.07 - Warm Embrace_ now! X3! Lots of interruptions and fluff, Dearies! Be prepared!


	7. 07 : Warm Embrace

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, blah blah blah... You guys know the drill already!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

ZOMFG, I'M FINALLY DONE WITH IT! XD!

Lucky Number Chapter 7! It's up! And it's at 'em!

BEWARE, READERS! **TONS OF FLUFF ALERT!** 8D! XDDDD!

And in the BEGINNING, too! ;D! LOL, I think it happened a little too fast, but it was too cute to take out or move. XD!

Enjoy, my dear Readers! This is the Fluffiest yet! XD

**

* * *

**

**: Fragment No.07 : _Warm Embrace_**

About an hour later, Ayukawa Emi was finally done conducting several different checkups on the formerly comatose teen. As soon as she said "_okay, that's it_," Yuki Judai took a firm hold of Anderson Johan's hand and grabbed his Slifer jacket as he dashed out of the room. Johan yelped as he was suddenly dragged out of the infirmary, leaving behind a stunned school nurse. The copper-haired Obelisk Blue advisor merely smiled and shook her head, going back to writing several things onto a paper that sat upon her clipboard.

Judai finally stopped once they made it outside, standing behind a few support beams as if afraid that somebody was going to come after them. Panting lightly, he pulled his Slifer Red blazer back on, straightening the violet red jacket. It was definitely a horrible color, which made it look closer to pink than red. Sticking his tongue out in distaste, he sighed; this was what he got for being so apathetic before. Now he _really_ wanted a new jacket.

Johan couldn't help smiling as he watched his best friend's actions, chuckling good-naturedly. When innocent chocolate brown eyes looked up at him curiously, all he could do was shake his head and take a few steps closer, wrapping his left arm around his waist and reaching his right one around to hold onto the back of the brunette's head. His fingers slipped into his mop of brown and orange hair, running through it lovingly.

The Slifer student could feel a familiar warmth in his cheeks, knowing that a blush was forming there. Gulping, his eyelids sunk a bit at the strange tingle he was feeling on his head wherever Johan's fingers touched. It was an odd feeling… but it was comfortable. He didn't know what this pleasant sensation was; although, it felt very nice.

"J-Johan…" he moaned, looking up into a fond gaze from emerald eyes.

The blunette brought the brunette closer, hugging him softly. Judai leaned his head against the side of Johan's neck, feeling his heart begin to beat faster and louder in his chest. With how close the two boys were, he swore that the other could feel it, too, and it was this thought that made his face redden significantly in half-embarrassment. His arms twitched to life for a moment before hesitantly wrapping themselves around the other's waist. His fingers clenched around the thin fabric that made up Johan's white shirt, accidentally pulling it out from being tucked into his black pants.

Johan buried his face into Judai's brown hair, breathing in the younger boy's scent. Although he'd been lying in a nurse's office for about two days, he _still_ had that absolutely addicting smell that was simply _Judai_. His eyes closed as he found himself caught in the moment, nuzzling against the other's head gently.

"Mmm… Judai…" he breathed tenderly, his arms tightening around his best friend's body, "There's something I… have to tell you, Judai…"

The Slifer student was intoxicated on the feelings he was drowned in by the current situation; it was like there was nothing but the two of them… All he was aware of was the blue-haired teen currently holding him close.

"Uh… uh-huh…" he tried to let the other know that he was listening, trying to tell him to continue, but when he let out the acknowledgement, it came out more like a pleading whimper.

A delightful shiver ran down his spine as Johan's warm breath hit his sensitive left ear, making his entire body tremble in anticipation. He almost let out another moan, but he shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip. Turning his head away slightly, all he accomplished was placing his ear closer to the other's mouth.

"Ever since we met… I've always felt something toward you…" Johan began, his eyes half-opening as a small smile came to him, "Something that… I didn't entirely understand until recently. Judai… I—"

"Judai! Juuuuudai!!!" a voice called out, ripping through the quiet of the air and totally ruining the moment.

Judai, having been immediately snapped out of his trance, shoved himself away from his best friend, standing about two feet away from him with his arms held out in front of him as if he was pushing the other. His eyes were staring directly downward at the ground, the blush burning his face. He gulped; what _was_ that just then?

Johan made a confused and hurt look toward the brunette, but the expression melted away instantly as a certain Obelisk girl dressed in a Slifer vest came into view. He smiled weakly at her, greeting her politely.

"Good morning, Rei! Isn't it a little too early to be yelling?"

The dark-haired girl stopped a few feet away from him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Judai was there due to the fact that he was hidden behind one of the support beams. She stared at Johan in surprise.

"J-Johan! When did you get back?" Saotome Rei asked with a wide smile on her face.

The blunette put his right hand behind his head and scratched at it some, chuckling embarrassedly, "Well, it's a long story… I came back because I heard about a few things."

"Like what happened to Judai?" the young girl pointed out, receiving a slow nod in return, "You don't have to be so shy about it! You're his best friend, right? You have a right to worry about somebody that close to you."

Johan nodded more confidently, "You're right. You're looking for him, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but I found him already!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

The two boys froze; did that mean she knew he was there the entire time? Clearing his throat, Judai slowly came out from behind the pillar, standing directly beside his best friend now with a slightly frightened look on his face.

"Judai-sama, why were you hiding from me?" Rei asked innocently, pouting childishly.

_Oh_, boy… The Slifer student knew where this would lead to, so he just decided to literally cut to the chase and take off running in the opposite direction. Johan blinked as he turned around, seeing nothing but the trail of dust the brunette had left behind. Out the corner of his eye, he could tell the girl was getting ready.

"Grrr… JUDAI-SAMA, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?! YOU SHOULDN'T BE RUNNING AFTER GETTING OUT OF THE INFIRMARY!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as she ran after him, her tailwind making Johan's hair and clothes blow wildly in the opposite direction.

He blinked for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and sighing, "I guess I'll tell him later…"

Johan wound up turning around and walking off toward the Slifer cafeteria, knowing that Judai would likely head there once he thought that Rei finally lost track of him. It was almost funny how predictable he was… Hopefully, no one else knew this much to intercept him again. The blunette really did want to tell him how he was affected by their separation and… and how he really felt about him.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Yuki Judai panted heavily as he leaned against the back wall of the Slifer Red dorm's cafeteria. It was a wonder that it hadn't become abandoned, especially since he was _the_ only Slifer student left. Several people still came to eat at the homely little dining area. Straightening his horrible Slifer blazer, he looked both ways cautiously, as if Saotome Rei would pop out at any moment.

"I… think I lost her…" he mumbled before taking a deep breath to calm himself down and beginning to walk off toward the front area of the cafeteria so he could enter through the doors.

The brunette closed his eyes as he walked along the outer walls, dragging his left hand along the barrier. His mind instantly came up with an image of his best friend, which then led to the memories of what happened around a half hour ago. His cheeks reddened significantly at the thought; just what _was_ all that? He didn't know… His heart had been beating so fast… and he felt like all he wanted was for Johan to hold him close forever…

The pulsing in his chest began to start up again, even without the blunette around. Picking up his vacant right hand, he stopped walking and placed it over his heart, feeling it through his shirt. He didn't know how Johan could have this effect on him… or what any of it meant. Maybe he should ask someone? If he asked Johan, he would definitely get an answer, but… since it involved him, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Perhaps he should ask Asuka or Sho or somebody…

Going back to walking, he turned the corner and pushed open the doors weakly, not really having enough strength to have it open by a lot. He growled quietly, pressing both of his hands against the door but still not getting them to open any wider. Right when he was about to yell for somebody inside to open it for him, he heard familiar voices.

"… Now that you know that Aniki's alright, what'll you do now?"

Judai blinked to attention; that was Sho's voice! Moving his head so that his eye peeked through the crack in the door, he located his little friend, seeing that he was standing in front of Johan. It seemed that the two of them were the only ones in the cafeteria at the moment.

Johan was sitting at one of the tables while Sho was standing up, looking down at him. Judai couldn't see Sho's face, but from the nervous look on Johan's, he didn't think they were talking about anything too good. It was then that he remembered what he just heard; what _was_ Johan going to do now that Judai was okay?

"Well… it's actually a funny story…" the blunette began, picking up his right hand and scratching the back of his head for a bit.

Sho folded his arms over his chest and interrupted the other, "You're leaving again, aren't you? I could tell from how you just started explaining. So, when is the boat coming back?"

The brunette froze as he listened to their conversation; Johan was… _leaving_ again? His heart, which had been beating so pleasantly fast before, began to ache painfully, making him want to cry. He sniffled as silently as he could, trying to clear himself up, but it came out too loud for even his own ears. The two inside of the cafeteria turned to the doors, seeing familiar brown and orange hair through the crack. Johan gasped, getting out of his seat so quickly that he moved the table a little.

"J-Judai! How… how long have you been there?" he asked, an anxious look on his face as he slowly took a few steps toward the door.

Judai's tears began to fog his vision, making Johan and Sho simple smudges over a watercolor world. He sniffled again, taking a shaky step backwards before shutting the doors and running off.

"Judai!!" Johan called, completely ignoring the smaller blunette in favor of pushing passed the double doors and running after his best friend.

He could hardly see the Slifer student's violet red jacket flapping behind him; it was the only thing he could keep track of from such a far distance away.

"Judai! Judai, please!! Stop running! Stop running away from me!!" He cried several times, begging from so far away.

Johan could feel his chest clench inward uncomfortably, heartache traveling up to his face to produce a stinging in his eyes. He knew that he was going to cry, but he shut his eyes in an attempt to get rid of them. Teardrops detached themselves from the sides of his eyes, falling through the air behind him as he continued onward. Hues of emerald green reopened, only to grow wide in surprise. The blunette tried to stop himself from running, seeing that he was about to run into the absolute worst person to run into at this moment.

"Anderson Johan! Stop running this _instant_, de aru!!" commanded the vice-principal Napoleon, holding his right palm out to emphasize his authority.

The Anderson boy stopped his feet so fast that the momentum he'd built up as he ran wound up pushing him into the stout man, causing both of them to fall onto the ground. Johan landed on top of the staff member, an embarrassed and slightly frightened expression on his face as he laughed nervously.

"E-eh heh… S-sorry, Napole—"

"OUTRAGOUS!" Napoleon snapped automatically, shoving himself up to his feet and literally throwing the poor European off of his back, "You're coming to the principal's office right now, de aru!!"

"Wh-what?!" the blunette gasped after he stumbled forward and spun around to stare in disbelief at the vice principal, "B-but I just got back! C'mon!!"

The short, round teacher glared at him, making his pudgy face look awfully distorted, "_Now_, Anderson! Get moving, de aru!!"

Johan groaned in disapproval, slouching over and walking in a totally different direction with Napoleon following behind him. Even after all that he and Judai had done for him and Martin, he was being this way toward him? He wasn't even considered a student of Duel Academia yet!

His eyes wandered off toward the direction Judai had dashed off to, a worried sparkle in them, _Judai… I hope you'll be okay…_

"EYES FORWARD, DE ARU!"

He winced, shutting his eyes tightly and lowering his head for a moment before slowly picking it back up a bit and opening sad emeralds to watch where he was going. It didn't look like Napoleon was going to make this easy…

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Judai was lying back on his bed, chocolate brown eyes staring up at the bottom of the top bunk. His arms were spread out to either side of him and his violet red jacket was crumpled underneath him; he didn't bother taking off his shoes as he came in, completely forgetting about everything except for what he'd heard.

_Johan… Johan's going back to North…?_ Tears slid down from the sides of his eyes, passed his ears and into his hair, dampening it significantly. He had already gotten used to his watery vision, seeing nothing above him but a dark brown blur in the dim room. His heartbeat had calmed to a slow, almost calm level, but he felt just as crappy as he had all last week.

Even though Johan was back, he would still have to leave again. This thought hurt him and he didn't know why. He knew that Europe was his best friend's home… so he had a right to go back. Far be it from him to keep him at Duel Academia. Judai kept telling himself this, but it didn't make him feel any better about it.

His eyes darted over to the clock; it was 3:13 PM. Had time really flown so quickly? It seemed like only a few minutes ago he was smiling and laughing along with Johan once he'd finally awoken. He sighed, closing his eyes and letting his face tilt upward slightly.

Every time he closed his eyes, without fail, he would see an image of Johan… Smiling, laughing, teasing, worrying… just about anything! Why was it that he couldn't get that friendly blunette out of his mind?

_**Knock, knock, knock!**_

He instantly turned around on his side so that he faced the wall, his back to the room. Reaching up his wrist, he wiped his eyes on his sleeve hurriedly before he heard his dorm room door creak open. He cursed mentally; apparently, he forgot to lock the door on his way in. He really didn't feel like seeing or talking to anybody at that moment.

"… Judai?" a familiar, velvety voice asked softly.

Judai's heart stopped; chocolate hues went wide as he slowly fell back onto his back, his head turning so that he could see the blue-haired boy standing by the door, "J-Johan…"

Johan had a worried look on his face as he watched the depressed Slifer lie in bed. His arms were folded over his chest, a white package being held to it. This item confused the brunette, making Johan grin slightly as he tossed it over to him.

Judai sat up hastily, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and reaching his arms out to catch the package. Whatever was wrapped in the white tissue paper, it was definitely soft. Looking up again to his best friend, he received a nod, which meant that he could open it. Going on to carrying out the action, he tore off the paper packaging and couldn't suppress the smile that appeared on his face.

The blunette must have remembered how the brunette wasn't too happy about wearing the old, violet red Slifer jacket, because sitting in Judai's lap currently was a brand new Slifer Red blazer. The same as the one he'd thrown away due to blood stains, minus the blood stains and plus that new-clothes smell. A low chuckle escaped his throat as he looked over to his friend again.

"Thanks… Johan…"

Emerald eyes softened at his calm voice as he entered the room, closing the door by leaning back against it. His arms, which had been held behind him, reached back a bit so that his fingers locked the door with a quiet _**click**_. Approaching his best friend, he didn't even bother trying to sit down; he didn't feel like it would be the right thing to do at the moment. Johan merely stood there, looking down on the other boy.

The curtains had been pulled off to the sides, allowing some of the afternoon sun to shine into the room. The rays of light fell directly upon Judai's innocent frame, giving him a golden angelic look. At this thought, Johan's throat went dry; he had been about to say something, but the other just _had_ to look so damn adorable!

"Johan?" Judai asked, blinking up at his best friend, "Is something wrong?"

His voice… He sounded almost like a curious child, making the European teen chuckle inwardly before finally feeling comfortable enough to sit down beside the other. He sat himself down with about a foot between himself and the other, hopefully giving him enough tolerance to _not_ put his arms around the cute brunette.

"Judai… There's been something that… well, no… There are a couple of things that I've been meaning to tell you." He finally said, his normal-colored pale hands coming together over his knees as he stared at them instead of looking to the other, "The first is about… how things were when I left."

"O-oh…" Judai stuttered, looking down, as well. He was slightly embarrassed; surely the other was going to try and make him explain why he got sick after he left. _Everyone_ asked him that, but he couldn't answer… because he didn't even know why himself!

Emerald eyes closed for a moment as he began to speak, "Y'see… When I went back to Europe and finally got back to North Academy… things weren't the same."

"Huh?" The brunette made a puzzled look, turning to face the blunette; so, this was about how Johan had been feeling when he went home?

"I thought that I'd be happy to be home… and for a while, I was. But then everywhere I turned, I was expecting to see you there." He explained, smiling weakly as his eyes cracked open to continue looking at his fingers, "I realized that I missed you very much… and everybody started noticing that I was getting depressed."

Judai was surprised; that meant that Johan had been going through the same thing that he'd been for the last week! Except _he_ didn't fall into a coma for almost two days.

"I started getting sick not long after… It was a little scary, because no one knew what was wrong with me besides that I was sad. Then I got a call from Samejima-kocho…"

_Huh? What does Samejima-kocho have to do with anything?_ Judai tilted his head to the side cutely, blinking as he continued to listen.

"… He told me that you were really sick and that I should try to come back. The moment I heard about it, I went to the principal at North and _made_ him let me come back." Now, a true smile came over him as he turned his face to look to the other's, "And while I was at it, I got him to sign a bunch of papers that would transfer me to Duel Academia for the remainder of the year."

Chocolate brown eyes went wide at what he just heard, "Then… back in the cafeteria… when you and Sho were—"

"He was just making assumptions." Johan said automatically, turning his head back to his fingers, "The truth of it was that I really didn't want to tell anyone until I told _you_ first."

The pain that had been pulsing through Judai's chest faded away, leaving behind a rapidly beating heart and several butterflies flying around in his stomach. His cheeks reddened as he looked away, too, in a feeble attempt to hide his blush.

Johan, however, had noticed the change of color around the other's cheeks. He smiled with a slight chuckle as he scooted himself a little bit closer to his best friend, slowly reaching his left hand around Judai's waist and pulling his right one up so that his hand lay flat against his warm left cheek. The brunette was shocked by the sudden touch, but allowed the older boy to redirect his face to look straight into his.

Stunned chocolate brown stared into soft emerald green, the smile on Johan's face instantly making him relax under his touch. His face, however, only darkened as he was pulled closer into the other's warm embrace. His head tilted a bit so that his face was nestled into the crook of the blunette's neck, a few stray strands of teal blue hair falling over his forehead. Eyelids fell closed as his heart pumped faster within his chest, making him think that he might as well add '_heart attack_' to that list of signs and symptoms Ayukawa-sensei and the others had put together to see what was wrong with him, but he wasn't experiencing the kind of heart attack that was harmful.

"Judai… There was… one more thing that I'd been meaning to tell you." Johan whispered, keeping his grip around the younger boy loose just in case something should go wrong.

"Hm?" Judai mumbled, giving into the warmth the other was providing for him.

It was absolutely mind-numbing, being this close to his best friend… The blue collar of Johan's Obelisk vest had been folded over to the side so that Judai's cheek and nose actually did come into contact with the soft skin of the European's neck. It took almost all of his self-control to keep himself from nuzzling against the tender, warm, pale skin there.

"For a long time now… I've felt these… _strong_ feelings toward you. Not the kind of feelings that I feel toward Jim, or Sho, or anybody else… They're only focused on _you_." The blunette began, pulling back a little so that he could look into the face of the younger boy.

Judai opened his eyes, only to see that upon the light face of Anderson Johan was a bright red blush, almost as dark as his own. He had hardly been able to listen to what he was saying, but of what he did hear, he understood Johan's feelings to be _very_ similar to what he was feeling toward him. The feelings were mutual, then… Did that mean that Johan knew what they meant? Maybe that's what he was about to tell him? He tried to clear out his mind so he could listen carefully to his best friend; he wanted to know what and why he was feeling this way.

"It took me a long time to realize… but the closer you and I got to each other, the more the feeling seemed to grow. Even now… I can feel it, and I know what it means now…"

_What does it mean, Johan? Please, tell me!_ Judai pleaded in his mind, his eyes widening expectantly.

"I…" Johan started but paused, gulping in an attempt to dampen his dry throat, "I really… care about you, Judai… and I never want to see you get hurt or sad… I know for sure that I… I really…"

The anxiety and embarrassment on his face made it seem all the more suspenseful to the brunette, but then he saw a sparkle in the emerald eyes of the other and noticed how his face was steadily growing closer to his own. Judai didn't move, but as Johan came closer to him, his eyes fell closed again. Instinct literally took over his actions as his lips came open a tad and he too began moving forward.

The two tilted their heads to right side slightly, drawing nearer to each other until finally, their virgin lips met in their first kiss. At first, they were both merely frozen in place, the kiss a simple touch of lips, but then Johan's arms tightened around the other's body to bring him closer. His lips gently caressed Judai's unexpectedly feather-soft ones, rubbing over them to feel their delicious smoothness against his own. The brunette followed his lead, going along with the rhythm they were setting.

After about a minute of that, the two separated for a moment to stare into each other's eyes once again. Judai's eyes were filled with the very emotion he'd been trying to figure out all of this time, but Johan was able to read it clearly. It made him smile kindly as that fond look in his emerald eyes increased, and then he finally said it.

"… I love you."

It was at that very moment that everything lit up inside of Yuki Judai's mind, showing him that the feelings he held toward his best friend were unmistakably feelings of love. Not the kind of love one holds toward their family or their friends… _Oh_, no, these feelings had crossed the line of friendship into more-than-friendship a _long_ time ago.

The harsh beating of his heart became a comfortable one to him as he smiled right on back at the blue-haired European, leaning forward to press his lips against the other's again. Judai picked up his arms and placed his hands over Johan's chest, fisting hesitantly at his white shirt as he brought him closer. The blunette had been mildly surprised by the action, but went along with it, closing his eyes again and trying to pull something different off on the other boy.

His mouth opened slightly wider than it had during their first kiss, allowing his tongue to lightly run over Judai's soft lips. A small gasp came from the younger boy, his eyes closing shut as he tried to lean his head back. Johan's hand, which had previous been over his cheek, traveled slowly to place itself within his brown hair, holding him in place so that he could continue what he was doing. The blush over the brunette's face became almost as bright as his old, faded Slifer jacket, his mouth open a little. A small moan rumbled from his throat and escaped into the air, making the blunette's ear twitch in interest.

Johan chuckled quietly before leaning forward a bit to close the gap between them again, holding Judai close to his body as he cautiously slid his tongue into the other's almost-awaiting mouth. The small, warm organ felt around the inside of the Slifer boy's mouth until it came in contact with _his_ tongue. Judai shyly moved his tongue forward, rubbing it against Johan's, but becoming a little more confident as the two began a sort of war.

The kiss became more passionate as their faces and mouths gradually moved faster, each trying to get as much of the other as they possibly could. Not long after they started, they fell back onto the bed with Johan straddling over Judai's shivering body. The blunette finally pulled back from the brunette, his eyes coming open in unison with the other's. Both smiled contentedly and lovingly at one another, knowing how each other felt.

"Johan, I… I love you, too." Judai stuttered, happy that he finally knew what he should have been able to figure out before.

Johan leaned back down, holding his lips near Judai's ear, "I'm so glad… so, so glad…"

Just as they were about to lock lips again, they could hear the doorknob turning frantically, followed by the high-pitched voice of their good friend Marufuji Sho, "Aniki! Aniki, I know you're in there!! Come out, already! You need to eat! Tome-san made fried shrimp to celebrate you coming out of the infirmary!"

Judai immediately sat up, making Johan move back reflexively to give him room. The two stared at the door and then looked to each other. The brunette smirked, "Race you to the cafeteria?"

"You're on!" And so the two raced out the open door, totally ignoring the Marufuji boy in favor of dashing for the cafeteria.

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

This didn't end it, People! There's still the Epilogue! ;D!

Judai & Johan will only be semi-main characters in it, though. XD! Half of it will likely be centered around Sho and Manjoume. ;x

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT'LL HAPPEN?! XDDD! It's gonna be fun!

Okay, so tell me what y'all thought! It took me a VERY long time to finish this! It's currently 12:40 AM on Monday, November 10th, 2008. LOL! I was TRYING to get this done yesterday, but I kept getting distracted. XD Oops?

Okay, yeah... Questions? Comments? Reviews? Please, feel free! I reply to all questions and randomly reply to others. XD

See you in the next chapter! :D


	8. EPILOGUE : Deep Connection

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Period. She only owns the idea used to create this dramatic fic. XD!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

YAY! Finally... The 8th Chapter... The Epilogue... The END!!

Holy shiznitzel, it took a while for me to finish this, but I **_actually_** finished it! I HAVEN'T FINISHED A CHAPTER FIC SINCE **.hack//Affection**!! And even my one-shots were crappy! XD!

This one, however, I'm actually very happy to have written and excited to have finally finished!! X3

I just want to thank all of you awesome Readers and Reviewers for leaving such awesome comments and just plain encouraging me to continue writing this fic. And a special "Thank You" to _KyoxSakiFan_ for helping me decide to drag this fic out to at least 8 Chapters. XD!

One more special thanks goes to _ObeliskKaiserinAsuka_ on YouTube for making an awesome AMV tribute for Spiritshipping to the song _Comatose_ by Skillet. It was her vid that gave me the idea to write this fic, so I HAVE to give her credit for that. X3

Alright, my fair Readers & Reviewers...

BIENVENIDOS A TODOS! I welcome you all!

To _The _**Final**Chapter!!

**

* * *

**

**: Epilogue : _Deep Connection_**

The weather around Duel Academia seemed to be just as bright and sunny as it had been for the passed few weeks, but today, something was different up in the light blue skies. There were many fluffy white clouds floating around, and everyone was sure to take notice, for it'd been a long time since there was actually some natural shade from the undying heat of the sun.

A deep sigh could be heard in the quiet morning air around the Slifer Red cafeteria. A very short teenager with large, mint-blue hair was leaning back against the wall beside the two entrance doors to the dining area, his head held low as his gray eyes stared downward at his feet. The high collar of his Obelisk Blue coat shielded his almost sad expression from anyone who would pass him by to either sides, but the way his small spectacles were barely hanging off of the tip of his nose, one could easily tell that he wasn't very happy.

The thoughts that were currently running through his mind consisted of memories from the day before. Even though Yuki Judai had finally come out of the infirmary, he hardly saw him, and when he _did_ get to be around him, Anderson Johan was always there. A jealous pout formed over his lips as he thought about how much time Johan was spending with _his_ Aniki. Was it really normal for two boys who claimed to be '_best friends_' to spend every minute of every day together?

When he had gone to Judai's dorm room to make him go eat some lunch, he had been totally ignored as he _and_ the European blunette ran off to the cafeteria. The shorter senior had gone after them, only to arrive in the run-down building on time to see the Slifer student already stuffing handfuls of fried shrimp into his mouth and Johan laughing hysterically at how the other looked while doing it. To put it simply, with how Judai was always with Johan, Sho felt empty… and _replaced_. He was no longer Judai's best friend and he knew it.

These thoughts were what made the poor Marufuji boy look so sad. A moment later, he heard footsteps against the ground become louder. Someone was approaching him. Lifting his head quickly as he shoved his negative feelings off to the side, he blinked when he saw the black-haired rich boy standing in front of him.

Manjoume Jun stopped about a yard away from the smaller Obelisk student, shooing off some dust from his black coat before folding his arms over his chest, "Sho! What's your deal? Why'd you call me out here? It couldn't have waited until we met up in class?"

Yes, Sho had almost forgotten; it was Monday again. He laughed embarrassedly, picking up his right hand and scratching at his cheek some with his index finger.

"Well, y'see… I wanted to go wake Aniki up, but I didn't want to go by myself…"

Manjoume's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "That's _it_? Why didn't you call Asuka or somebody else?!"

The small blunette flinched at the other's shouting voice, shutting his eyes for a moment before shyly poking his two index fingers together in front of him and staring at them, "W-well, I… I don't know… You were the first to come to mind, I guess…"

Dark eyes blinked from irritation to mild surprise as the black Obelisk looked down at Sho curiously. A second later, he sighed restlessly with a light redness rising over his face as he turned away at a 90 degree angle but held out his right hand to the shorter boy.

Sho blinked, gazing at that hand before looking to his friend in confusion. When Manjoume wouldn't meet his eyes, a tiny smile came to him as he placed his hand into the other's. Manjoume started walking off toward the Slifer dorm, the blush burning on his face as he held Sho's hand loosely within his own.

It didn't take them too long to reach Judai's dorm room up the stairs, the two pulling their hands away from each other. With embarrassment over both of their faces, Manjoume merely folded his arms again and stood off to the side as Sho walked up to the door and tried to turn the knob.

_**Rik, rik, rik.**_ He stared at the doorknob; it was locked. Again.

"Are you _serious_!?" Manjoume shouted at the top of his lungs, staring in disbelief at the door, "I thought we already _solved_ this problem!!"

Sho winced at how loud his friend was, but as the other boy began to pace around the wooden flooring, he pulled out his Duel Academia ID card from his pocket and slipped it in between the door and the threshold. Jiggling the solid object for a few seconds, he heard a satisfying _**click**_ as the card passed beneath the door's lock, enabling him to pull open the door.

The door then began to creak as it swung open, its loud noise making the black-haired Obelisk stop in his tracks beside Sho in favor of staring into the room. All went silent as both of their eyes widened in shock and horror.

The room looked just as it always looked, to put it generally. There was still trash and clothes all over the floor, but the window's curtains were drawn to the sides so that the morning's sunlight fell in right onto the lower bunk of the beds, illuminating they who were currently asleep there.

Yuki Judai was lying on his left side with his back to the room near the edge of the bed, his black T-shirt ruffled upward a bit to show a little bit of skin from his back. His white pants were pulled down slightly, revealing the lining of his scarlet red boxers some as his knees bent forward to have one leg completely visible and the other half-hidden beneath the white sheets of the bed.

What had stunned the two Obelisk boys was what else they saw on the bed with Judai… or rather, _who_ else.

Anderson Johan was lying on his right side, opposite of the sleeping Slifer student. His long-sleeved white shirt was completely pulled low to hide his body, but his black jeans seemed to have one button undone. His arms were drawn around the brunette's body, holding him close to his chest. Both of their legs seemed to be tangled together simply; their faces were about half a foot apart from one another on the lone pillow.

Even with all of the commotion that the taller of the two Obelisk boys had been conducting, the two in bed were consumed in what seemed to be a _very_ deep but pleasant slumber.

After several moments had dragged on, Manjoume was the one who finally broke the silence by shouting out, "You _HOMOS_!! WHAT THE HELL!!"

This time, Johan was startled awake, picking his head up so quickly and moving his body to push himself up to the point that his movements awakened the innocent brunette lying beside him.

"Huh? Wha…" the blunette groaned, looking around groggily before yawning.

Judai picked up his left arm and pushed himself up to lean on his elbow, using his right hand to rub at his eye sleepily, "Johan… what is it?"

"Rise and shine, Fags! I hope you guys had a great night, because this day's going to be _Hell_ for the both of you!" Manjoume informed as he walked menacingly into the room.

"What the… Manjoume, what're you doing in my room?" Judai yawned, sitting up as well as he could without hitting his head on the top bunk.

"WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THE SAME BED AS _JOHAN_?!"

"Same bed as… Huh?" the Slifer student turned his head to look at the blunette next to him, only to finally realize what position they had been caught in.

The two Duelists blushed brightly in embarrassment; it looked like the cat was out of the bag… _That_ was quick.

"We… we didn't _do_ anything…" Johan tried to explain, putting his hand behind his head and laughing nervously.

"Like _Hell_, you didn't do anything! Neither of you are wearing jackets, Judai's boxers are showing, Johan's jeans are unbuttoned, and Winged Kuriboh and Ruby Carbuncle look like they're having an absolute _ball_ right now!!" Manjoume pointed at the two Duel Monster spirits, who seemed to be giggling uncontrollably by the window.

Judai and Johan shot quick glares over to their Duel Spirits, making the two monsters disappear. Johan crawled out of the bed and stood up, dusting off his shirt before he tried to defend himself and his boyfriend again.

"Seriously! We didn't do anything! You can ask anybody else in the dorm; they would've heard us, right?"

"There's nobody else to _ask_, Dipshit! The only person who's actually assigned to be _in_ this crappy dorm is Judai, which means that there are no witnesses or evidence to vouch for the two of you!"

"Doesn't matter, you goddamn smart ass! Just because _you_ want to believe that we had sex doesn't mean that it's the truth!" Judai snarled, also getting out of bed and picking up his brand-new Slifer jacket from the floor to put it on, "Think what you want; just get the Hell out of my room."

"_OH_, no, you don't! I'm not letting you get off that easy!—"

"I SAID '_OUT_!!'" The brunette walked up to the black-haired Obelisk and snatched his shoulder, spinning him around and shoving him out the door.

Manjoume Jun tripped on the way out, falling forward into Marufuji Sho and sending the both of them to collapse in a pile on the floor. Judai shut the door after them, leaning back against it as he locked it again. Sliding down a bit as he took a deep breath of relief, he opened his eyes to look up, only to see Johan directly in front of him. A small grin came to him at how close they were getting.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm pretty sure you can…" Johan replied with a slight chuckle, lowering his head to Judai's neck and gently running his lips over it.

The Slifer boy shivered, biting his lip to suppress a small moan as he tilted his head to the side to give the blunette more access to him. He could practically hear the smirk on the other's face as he chuckled again, kissing his neck lovingly. The palms of his hands were pressed back against the door and he was having a difficult time keeping his knees from buckling underneath him.

"J-Johan… we really… sh-should get ready for class…" he stuttered, gulping to try and calm down a little bit.

Johan ghosted his lips over the other boy's soft and sensitive skin, all the way up to his ear, where he softly whispered, "I guess you're right… but since _when_ do you care about going to class?"

"S-since I got out of that coma." He tried to explain, but it come out more like a whine.

Damn Johan and his secret ways of turning him on…

"Fair enough." The blunette said casually, pulling himself away from Judai and walking over to pick up his Obelisk Blue vest.

Judai just stood there, staring at his boyfriend the entire time. Did he just go from '_I'm going to seduce you_' to '_Okay, good morning, World! School, here I come_' in less than two seconds? Not only was he amazed, but a little disappointed, too. He must've shown his feelings on his sleeve, because Johan was currently laughing good-naturedly at him.

"Aww… did you want me to continue?"

"Shut up, you…" the younger boy mumbled, a wide grin curling over his lips as he walked over to the desk and picked up his Neo Spacian and Elemental Hero deck.

Straightening his clothes out some so that they didn't look too wrinkled, he threw his gaze over his shoulder to his boyfriend, "Hey, Judai… Are you ready for a barrage of questions having to do with you being sick last week and our current relationship?"

The mock happiness in his voice made his sarcasm all the more hilarious. Judai just laughed before heading back over to the door and opening it up.

"I guess we'll just have to face it head-on!"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Just as the two had thought, their sexual preferences had been spread around the school so fast that there were literally people waiting _just_ for them to show up to class so that they could ask if it was true. On the way to the lecture hall, several people had been staring at them as they held hands. Judai's right hand was held within Johan's left hand as they walked leisurely onward, only the younger of the couple was blushing bright red. It wasn't so much in embarrassment as it was the fact that Johan was so comfortable with letting others know about their little secret. It made him smile cheerfully, making several of the students smile at how cute the two looked together.

Upon reaching the room, they opened the door to see their classmates waiting in the stairway, all arguing with one another. When they realized that the two of them were standing there in the doorway, all fell silent until one, very brave little Obelisk girl stepped forward to ask the question on everybody's mind.

"Are you two really gay?"

With how simply the random girl had put it, it almost made the couple laugh, but Johan had been the one to smile in a friendly manner and nod.

"Yup! Judai and I are dating now!"

Half of the female population in the room slouched over, having felt the ultimate rejection. They, who had become the secret Fan Club for Anderson Johan, had just been told that the object of their obsession had a thing for guys, and what's more, his boyfriend was _Yuki Judai_, the school's top Duelist. How absolutely lovely!

The other half, however, erupted in cheers and giggling at the new couple; apparently, these were the Yaoi fan girls. Lastly, _all_ of the boys merely stared at them as if they had suddenly been joined together at the hip and sprouted four Blackland Fire Dragon wings. Suffice it to say, they were weirded out.

Ignoring the reactions from every student in the room, Judai and Johan squeezed passed all of them to sit in their seats, Judai sitting next to a rather depressed-looking Marufuji Sho. The brunette tilted his head to the side, watching his friend before placing a hand over his shoulder.

"Sho? Sho, are you feeling okay?"

The small blunette picked up his head a little bit, only to have one sorrowful gray eye looking at him. Sho knew now that Johan hadn't taken his place as Judai's best friend, but he'd completely taken over the innocent senior's heart by falling in love with him. He couldn't help the small sigh of relief that escaped his mouth as he sat up straight and mustered up as much of a smile as he could to direct toward his best friend.

"So, you two are going out, now? Does that mean I'm still your best friend?" It had slipped out before he could stop himself, and when he realized it, he slapped his hands over his mouth.

Had he just asked the question that'd been running through his head ever since the European teen first came to this school?

Judai didn't seem to be shaken by the question; all he did was shrug and smile that cheery smile of his, "Well, of _course_! Johan's my best friend, and all… but you were my first friend when I came here for freshman year! You're always gonna be one of my best friends!"

Sho's smile became the brightest it'd been in weeks when he heard what Judai had to say, finally feeling the absolute happiest at that moment. He nodded self-assuredly, his eyes lighting up with a small blush of embarrassment over his face. He had worried over all of that for nothing… How could he doubt his best friend?

Johan chose that moment to slip his left arm around Judai's waist, making his chair slide closer to his own when he pulled him over. Wrapping his other arm around over the younger boy's chest, he held him close to himself while leaning his chin on his shoulder.

"What did I just hear about being your best friend? I thought we already crossed that line last night, _Ju-chan_…"

All of the Yaoi fan girls in the room squealed excitedly at how absolutely _wrong_ Johan's phrase had sounded. It implied that they did something the previous night, but that ship had sailed a _long_ time ago. The couple just ignored them again as Judai replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I guess I'm just so used to calling you that." He smiled innocently, leaning back in the other's grasp and cuddling into his strong neck, "I'm supposed to call you my '_boyfriend_' now, right?"

Just the fact that he was asking such a question in public was adorable, literally killing half the girls in the room from the utter cuteness.

It was then that their teacher entered the room, seeing all of the students standing around talking and, most of them, staring at the couple who were sitting a bit too close to each other.

"Everyone settle down and take a seat! No more talking, no ne! And _you two_!!" Chronos-sensei shouted, pointing a long, pointed finger at Judai and Johan, instantly getting their attention, "No PDA during class, no ne! Keep at least one foot of distance between your shoulders, and if I catch you two even a _millimeter_ closer together, I'll move you both to opposite ends of the room where you can't be close at _all_, no ne!"

Judai merely blinked at the teacher's ranting; _somebody_ woke up on the wrong side of the bed! Shrugging, he pulled himself out of Johan's arms and scooted his chair a little closer to his best friend Sho's.

"AH! A foot between you and Sho, too, no ne! With this new knowledge of your sexual preference, there's no way for me to tell if you're doing anything you're not supposed to with signor Sho, there, no ne!"

Judai just _stared_ at the homely-faced teacher, unable to believe what he just heard, "Are you… are you _serious_? I'd never do anything to Sho!"

"No way for me to tell, no ne! Now, do as I say before I send you out of the room, signor Judai." He repeated, continuing his steady walk down the stairway until he got to the bottom and to his desk.

Grumbling, the Slifer student scooted away from his best friend, as well, looking from left to right to make sure he was at least 12 inches away from each of his close companions. Sighing once it was clear, he folded his arms over the table and buried his head into it, hiding his disappointed expression.

_What a morning so far…_ He thought grimly.

A hand suddenly placed itself over his knee, making him turn his head to face toward his boyfriend. Johan's smile was a gentle one, an amused sparkle in those clear emerald eyes of his. Judai couldn't help smiling back, picking himself up to sit straight and hiding his hand beneath the table to hold onto Johan's.

_At least nobody can get between Johan and me for good._

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Later on around lunch time, the couple burst through the Slifer cafeteria's doors, Johan slightly ahead of Judai. The two stopped abruptly, standing side-by-side as they slouched over and placed their hands over their knees to pant.

"I won!" Judai squeaked between puffs of air.

"No way! I was… definitely in front of you!" Came Johan's reply, grinning widely.

**"_I hate, feeling like this…_**

_**So tired, of trying to fight this.**_**"**

Once his breath had come back under control, the brunette stood up straight and looked around the room, hearing the soft chattering of the handful of students eating there, but listening passed them to the music that seem to be playing from the radio in the back by the area that Tome served the food from.

**"_I'm asleep and all I dream of_**

_**Is waking to you!**_**"**

A blush painted his cheeks at how familiar the song was to his ears; it was a lot like how he felt while he was sick… while Johan was gone. His chocolate brown eyes darted over to look to his lover, who was still panting heavily but reached up his arm to wipe away the sweat over his brow on his sleeve.

**"_Tell me, that you will listen_**

_**Your touch, is what I'm missin'**_

_**And the more I hide, I realize**_

_**I'm slowly losing you!**_**"**

His lips curled upward into a sheepish little smile; he'd been so stupid… How could he not have seen that it was Johan's absence that had made him get sick? It'd been the trigger to set off that illness, and it eventually led to…

**"_Comatose…_"**

Eyes widened when he heard the song say the word; did he _hear_ that correctly?

**"_I'll never wake up without an overdose_**

_**Of you!**_

_**I don't wanna live!**_

_**I don't wanna breathe!**_

'_**Les I feel you next to me**_

_**You take, the pain I feel.**_**"**

How closely this song hit home! Judai wanted to laugh at how true the lyrics were, but as he allowed himself a quiet chuckle, his lover looked to him with calm, curious emerald hues. _What's so funny_, his eyes seemed to ask. He merely shook his head, shrugging as he took him by the hand and led him over to where Tome was giving out the food. The music gradually grew louder the closer they got.

**"_I don't wanna sleep!_**

_**I don't wanna dream!**_

'_**Cause my dreams don't comfort me**_

_**The way, you make me feel…**_

_**Waking up to you never felt, so, real!**_**"**

**"_I hate, living without you_**

_**Damn wrong, to ever doubt you.**_

_**But my demons lay in waiting**_

_**Tempting me, away.**_**"**

Once they'd gotten their food, the two of them sat down at their usual table, but instead of starting a conversation, Judai closed his eyes and listened carefully to the music. The song was almost describing his feelings during the entire week he was away from Johan.

**"_Oh! How I adore you!_**

_**Oh! How I thirst for you!**_

_**Oh! How I, need you!**_**"**

It was then that he felt a familiar pressure around his waist and a solid object pressing against the back of his shoulder. His eyes came open for a moment, looking over without surprise to see Johan staring at him with understanding eyes. It seemed as though he had caught onto what currently held his attention.

**"_Comatose…_**

_**I'll never wake up without an overdose**_

_**Of you!**_**"**

Again, chocolate brown eyes fell closed as he leaned into Johan, enjoying the warmth he provided for him. Judai might actually have realized that he was in love with his best friend sooner if he had heard this song before. Shaking his head, he sighed contentedly when he received a chaste kiss from his lover to his forehead.

He smiled to himself, nodding slightly, _I'm glad things happened the way they did… I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, that's for sure._

**Fin.**

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

WHOO! That took forEVER! My eyes are freaking BURNING! GRAH! I've been losing SO MUCH sleep over this fic! And it's finally DONE!!

Haha, I don't own the song _Comatose_ by Skillet. It's a rockin' song and it's actually my _favorite_ song, and God knows that this fic would not have been possible without the help of watching _ObeliskKaiserinAsuka_'s AMV and watching a certain episode of House.

Thank you so much, Everyone, for staying with me this long!

This particular chapter was actually completed Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 9:47 PM. I'm SO PROUD! I stared this fic on... what was it? October 21st, I believe... and ended it on the 11th of November. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

I know that some of you may not have wanted this fic to end, but don't worry! I _am_ going to start writing **_another_ Spiritshipping** fanfic under the title **"Severed Wings of the Angels."** It's going to be a MUCH longer fic with, hopefully, a lot more detail and imagery and stuff... I _WILL_ be AU, but it's going to be so much fun to write.

Please tell me what you thought of this ending, and please refrain from complaining about how there wasn't enough Spiritshipping Fluff, or another make-out scene in this chapter. XD! I'd planned for one, but I was happy to end it the way I did. And tell me if you'll be interested in reading the next fic! X3!

See y'all next time!

-- _The_ **Emerald** Twin Blade

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